I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: February 14, 2026] Nine Inch Nails

I saw Nine Inch Nails open for Skinny Puppy 37 years ago.  And never saw them again.  My son said he was interested in seeing them so when the announced this show I was like, hell yea, lets go.

I had heard the show was great, and I peeked at the setlist to see that there was a B stage (always cool) and a main stage.  I’m bad at song names so even though I saw what was playing I didn’t realize which songs they were, so a lot of it was a wonderful surprise to me.

After Boys Noize, Trent came out and played a song on the piano on the B stage.  We could see okay (except for that goddamned wire clump) but there was fog blowing down on them basically obscuring the whole proceedings.

And I can say this for this first time possibly ever,  I could barely see what was going on half the time and it was still one of  the best arena shows I’ve ever been to.

The sound was perfect–clean and crisp.  And as I said to my son, I was never bored or waiting for what came next for the entire hour and 45 minutes.  In fact, when it was 10 o clock, I couldn’t believe an hour had gone by.  It was just a killer show from start to finish–even the songs I didn’t know sounded great.  But most importantly, they played a lot of songs I did know!

While Trent played (You Made It Feel Like) Home, a quiet song, I was surprised at how chatty and weird the audience was during this, a woman shouted Happy Valentine’s Day and people laughed and whooped–it was so disrespectful.  But he seemed unfazed.

Then he pushed a button and started the second song, Non-Entity. While he was playing the cool piano melody of Atticus Ross came up on stage followed by his bassist Stu Brooks and guitarist Robin Finck and they added a fuller sound to the mix and wow it sounded great!

Trent got up and started singing Hey Piggy.  And while he did, a guy shone a spotlight on his face the whole time–walking around shining it right in his face–how weird.  But it sounded incredible.

When the song was over, the B stage went black and Josh Freese (wow what a drummer) started a drum solo that was projected on the big screen.  The rest of the band ran to the big stage as the curtain lifted and they started Wish and holy cow the guitars were buzzsaw perfect and they were tight as anything.

Then they switched to my favorite song March of the Pigs an it was amazing!  The precision of the main part combined with Trent’s looser piano bits in the middle were a great live experience.

Things slowed down briefly while Trent played the piano The Frail.  It was a nice short breather before the intensity of Reptile.

Perhaps the most amusing moment of the night came during Heresy.  As Trent started everyone clapping along after singing “God is dead and no one cares, if there is a hell, I’ll see you there.”

I really enjoyed the effects on Copy of A with multiple images of Trent behind him doing the same thing but slightly off off each other–a copy of a copy.  Throughout the show there were cameramen on stage filming everything.  They projected a lot of it on the screens, but not everything was projected.  Sometimes there were just effects and visuals on the screen.

My son noted that the lights corresponded to what album they were playing from.  So all the songs from The Downward Spiral were bathed in yellow/brown for instance.

After Gave Up, the B stage rose up from the floor again and Boys Noize started playing an electronic beat.  Atticus and Trent went to the small stage and they began a short industrial set.

They played Vessel and the lights were great.  There was smoke and fog and a cool new lighting scheme (which is why the dreaded lighting cable was in front of us).  It was probably worth it for Parasite, which had an amazing green spider-like look.

But before that they played a killer version of closer (which I had forgotten about and was thrilled to hear it).  Up next was Parasite, which I didn’t know and it quickly became my favorite unknown NIN song.  (Okay I see that it’s a cover of How to Destroy Angels, but I still loved it).

Between the songs, the sound effects were tremendous, it was like watching Dr Frankenstein revive the monster –static and walls of noise and flashes of light and snoke which all led into As Alive as You Need Me to Be (the chorus of “give me something to believe in” was great).  As the song ended, Boys Noize played a beat.

This time when they left the B stage the camera followed Trent through the crowd as he headed back up to the main stage and they launched into Mr Self Destruct which ended with a screaming insane guitar solo.

I didn’t know Less Than but it was great and I enjoyed seeing Trent play the tambourine during this song.  Then came The Perfect Drug which I had forgotten about.  The crowd responded and the backing vocals were great.  Josh Freese played an intense drum solo.

Then Trent broke the 4th wall briefly to thank everyone for coming (especially for coming out on Valentine’s Day) and introducing the band.  He said that they got to work on the next song with one of their heroes.  They played David Bowie’s I’m Afraid of Americans.  I had no idea that NIN had anything to do with the song, but I see that they made remixes of it, and didn’t have anything to do with the original.  But it was great to hear and scarily appropriate.

I couldn’t believe that this was the home stretch.  It was non stop fun.

Up next was The Hand That Feeds, the song my son said was his favorite and which I didn’t know.  He played it for me in the car on the way to the show and I’m so glad he did because it was a cool song and I liked knowing it before they played it live –where it sounded even better.

They ended the set with Head Like a Hole.  When I saw them 37 years ago Head Like a Hole hadn’t come out yet, so this was my first time hearing it live and it was terrific–the whole place singing along and people crowd surfing.

He thanked us and left the stage and people started flooding out. Even though, as the guy behind me who seemed to know everything about NIN said they were still going to play Hurt.

I do not like the Johnny Cash version of this song, which I feel like I hear way more than the original and I had forgotten how great the original is.  And Trent’s voice sounded fantastic.  It sounded great throughout the night–I was really impressed.  But hearing it clean and unprocessed through the beginning of the song really brought home how good he sounded.  And I liked the way the song got really big at the end–a perfect way to send us home.

Getting out of the place wasn’t terrible–could have been a lot worse and we were home a little after midnight.

It was a great great show.  I’m so glad that my son wanted to go and that he enjoyed it as much as I did.

 

1. B-Stage
   (You Made It Feel Like) Home ß
2. Non-Entity ©
3. Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now) ⇓
   Main Stage
4. Wish ‰
5. March of the Pigs ∞
6. The Frail ♣
7. Reptile ∞
8. Heresy ∞ 
9. Copy of A ⊗
10. Gave Up ‰
    B Stage
11. Vessel Ø
12. Closer ∞
13. Parasite [How to Destroy Angels song]
14. As Alive as You Need Me to Be ∇
    Main Stage
15. Mr. Self Destruct∞
16. Less Than +
17. The Perfect Drug ≡
18. I’m Afraid of Americans [David Bowie song]
19. The Hands That Feeds ψ
20. Head Like a Hole ¶
    Encore
21. Hurt ∞

THE 1988 SHOW HAS THIS SETLIST, ALTHOUGH TWO SONGS SEEM TO BE MISSING.

Sanctified ¶
Maybe Just Once
The Only Time ¶
That’s What I Get ¶
Twist ¶ (early version of Ringfinger)
Down In It ¶

All songs are from a bootleg called The Purest Feeling recorded in Oct 1988.

‰ Broken (1992)
∞ The Downward Spiral (1994)
+ Add Violence (2017)
⇓ Further Down the Spiral (1995)
⊗ Hesitation Marks (2013)
≡ Lost Highway soundtrack (1997)
¶ Pretty Hate Machine (1989)
♣ The Fragile (1999)
∇ TRON: Ares Soundtrack (2025)
ψ With Teeth (2005)
Ø Year Zero (2007)
© NIN|JA 2009 Tour Sampler (2009)
ß Bones and All soundtrack (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross album) (2022)

Jim Powers recorded the whole show (and posted it already!)