Before he led his Sunday night tour stop on Nine Inch Nails’ “Peel It Back” World Tour, Trent Reznor told a nearly sold-out crowd at the Rocket Arena that, earlier in the day, he took a drive around his former hometown of Cleveland.
He might have rolled by what used to be Lakewood’s former Phantasy Nightclub, where he opened for Skinny Puppy in Nine Inch Nails’ very first show in 1988. Maybe he paused in front of the former home of Right Track Studios, where he worked as a janitor and assistant engineer to get access to record the project’s earliest songs.
Wherever he went, the drive certainly took Reznor down memory lane.
Nine Inch Nails is certainly one of the most influential bands to ever come out of Cleveland. Trent Reznor’s harsh, experimental music ushered industrial rock into the mainstream. His abrasive, machiney electronic production first broke out with 1989’s Pretty Hate Machine and later topped Billboard charts with 1994’s The Downward Spiral. Later, country rockstar Johnny Cash covered Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt” in 2002, which became one of the biggest covers of his career. The group has won two Grammy awards, and Reznor and Atticus Ross won two Oscars for scores to The Social Network and Soul.
Nine Inch Nails’ concerts made history too. Like, for example, the intense, simmering, mud-caked Woodstock 1994 performance that went down in history as one of the best rock shows of all time. Or when the band supported David Bowie, or appeared in the debut Lollapalooza lineup, or led some of the most major tours of the 1990s and 2000s.
Unsurprisingly, the band was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2020. In his taped acceptance speech, Reznor thanked bandmates and contributors, and the band’s rabid fanbase: “We’ve wound up in some weird places together, and you’re an intense bunch that can drive me out of my mind, but you’re the best.”
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In the rare quiet parts of Nine Inch Nails' Cleveland show, you heard, at most, an errant "woo!" or two from the band's thousands of fans. They stayed nicely, respectfully quiet as Reznor kicked off the concert earnestly and alone at a piano for a tender version of “Right Where It Belongs.” Stationed on a small B stage in the center of the floor audience, he was gradually joined by bandmate and collaborator Atticus Ross, plus touring bandmates Robin Finck and Alessandro Cortini. The musicians met the skilled Josh Freese at the main stage for other parts of the set.
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There, things got heavier. “Wish” saw Reznor thrashing onstage, while “The Hand That Feeds” spurred the floor crowd into a mosh pit complete with a few crowd surfers. Lighting effects were tremendous and inventive: “Copy Of A” impressively used translucent curtains to superimpose dozens of Reznor clones about the space. Blue and purple lights invoked a lava lamp effect on “Find My Way.” A cameraperson skillfully swerved between bandmates to capture cinematic angles of performers throughout the entire show, projecting each musician onto the massive screens both behind and in front of them. (They were the MVP of the night.)
Reznor, now 60, sounds and looks good. His band is not as muddy or as raucous as it was in its earliest years; the singer long ago went to rehab for drug addiction and has been sober for decades. He’s a dad of five. He and Ross shifted gears to scoring movies and moved away from relentless touring. And when they do tour, it’s a different vibe: the current touring rider is wholesome, filled with requests for nutritious fruits, veggies and charcuterie.
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Still, all these years later, Reznor’s simmering intensity remains. You could hear it in Rocket Arena on Sunday, in the heaviness of songs like “Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now),” “The Hand That Feeds” and a remix of “Closer,” which Nine Inch Nails performed with opening artist Boys Noize.
And it all started right here, in Cleveland.
While reminiscing about his drive, Rezor said, “it really reminded me how much it shaped me into who I became."
He said that to the city. His city.
Nine Inch Nails’ Cleveland Set List:
1. "Right Where It Belongs"
2. "Ruiner"
3. "Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now)"
4. "Wish"
5. "March of the Pigs"
6. "Reptile"
7. "Find My Way"
8. "Copy of A"
9. "Gave Up"
10. "Vessel"
11. "Closer"
12. "Came Back Haunted"
13. "Mr. Self Destruct"
14. "Less Than"
15. "The Perfect Drug"
16. "I'm Afraid of Americans (David Bowie cover)"
17. "The Hand That Feeds"
18. "Head Like a Hole"
19. "Hurt"
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