Nine Inch Nails: Live

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Nine Inch Nails live performances contrast with the recorded output of the Nine Inch Nails discography.^[1] In the studio, most if not all of each Nine Inch Nails release is performed entirely by Trent Reznor. On stage, he assembles a group of backing musicians, usually of the traditional rock band variety, to accompany him. In this form, Nine Inch Nails have become internationally recognized as one of modern rock's most perennially exciting live acts.^[2]

I could have just gone out with tape machines or 50 keyboards or whatever and recreated the sound of the record, but I'm much more interested in the challenge of having 4 musicians interpret what was initially composed by one person on a computer. This way, I'm not bored, there's a lot of interaction and it's a unique interpretation of my music. The record and the shows are quite different.

—Trent Reznor, in a 1991 interview^[3]

If you see the show and you're used to the CDs it's pretty clear that the studio entity is different from the live entity.

—Alessandro Cortini, NIN keyboardist since 2005, in a 2006 interview^[4]

Contents 1 Band lineups 1.1 Pre-Pretty Hate Machine (October 1988) 1.2 Pretty Hate Machine (October 1989 — September 1991) 1.3 The Downward Spiral (March 1994 — December 1995) 1.4 The Fragile (November 1999 — July 2000) 1.5 With Teeth and Year Zero (March 2005 — Present) 1.5.1 Dillon's departure 2 Guest artists and collaborations 2.1 1995 Dissonance tour with David Bowie 2.2 1996 Nights of Nothing showcase 2.3 2006 Live: With_Teeth amphitheatre tour and radio performances 3 Songs not played live 4 References 5 External links

[edit] Band lineups

Aside from Reznor himself (who has contributed vocals, guitar, bass, synthesizer, saxophone, tambourine and mbira), the live lineup has been modified before each major tour begins.

[edit] Pre-Pretty Hate Machine (October 1988)

The first band was assembled to support Skinny Puppy on several dates, and was composed of what a Goldmine Magazine article described as "session musicians." The band was apparently poorly received, as they were asked to leave the tour after 10 dates.

• Ron Musarra - Drums, Samplers
• Chris Vrenna - Keyboards, Samplers [1]

[edit] Pretty Hate Machine (October 1989 — September 1991)

(Pretty Hate Machine promo tour; The Jesus and Mary Chain support tour; Peter Murphy support tour; Hate '90; Now I'm Nothing '91; Lollapalooza '91; European 1991 mini-tour)

• Richard Patrick - Guitar
• Chris Vrenna - Drums (beginning of tour)
• Jeff Ward - Drums (remainder of tour)
• David Haymes - Keyboards (part of tour)^[5]
• Nick Rushe - Keyboards (part of tour)^[6]
• Lee Mars - Keyboards (part of tour)^[7]
• James Woolley - Keyboards (remainder of tour)

[edit] The Downward Spiral (March 1994 — December 1995)

Main article: Closure (Nine Inch Nails VHS)

(Self Destruct tour; Woodstock '94; Further Down the Spiral tour; Dissonance side of David Bowie's Outside tour; club tour with Helmet)

• Robin Finck - Guitar, Synthesizer
• Danny Lohner - Bass, Guitar, Synthesizer
• Chris Vrenna - Drums
• James Woolley - Synthesizer (1994)
• Charlie Clouser - Synthesizer, Drums on 5 songs during Dissonance (1995)^[8]
• Sean Beavan - Soundboard, Backing vocals on 5 songs^[9]

[edit] The Fragile (November 1999 — July 2000)

Main article: And All That Could Have Been

(Fragility v1.0; Fragility v2.0; European mini-tour)

• Robin Finck - Guitar, Synthesizer
• Danny Lohner - Bass, Guitar, Synthesizer
• Jerome Dillon - Drums
• Charlie Clouser - Synthesizer, Theremin

[edit] With Teeth and Year Zero (March 2005 — Present)

Main article: Beside You in Time

(Live: With_Teeth club tour, international tour, arena tour, amphitheatre tour, performance 2007)

• Aaron North (formerly Aaron Icarus of The Icarus Line) - Guitar
• Jeordie White (formerly Twiggy Ramirez of Marilyn Manson and A Perfect Circle) - Bass, Guitar, Synthesizer
• Alessandro Cortini - Synthesizer, Guitar, Bass
• Jerome Dillon - Drums (March–October 1, 2005)
• Josh Freese - Drums (October 4–5, 2005; December 6, 2005–Present)
• Alex Carapetis - Drums (October 7–December 1, 2005)

[edit] Dillon's departure

Midway through the band's first Live: With_Teeth arena show in San Diego, California on September 16, 2005, Jerome Dillon had a heart condition that caused him to stop the show midway and be hospitalized. This and a subsequent show were postponed, and another gig was outright cancelled.^[10] The cardiac disorder was later diagnosed as a non-life threatening consequence of Dillon's thyroid medication.^[11] Dillon played his last show with NIN at the Hollywood Bowl on October 1, 2005. Later he remarked that when he was ready to return, he encountered "complete apathy and no sympathy" from Reznor and NIN management.^[11] Reznor in turn wrote that Dillon's "recollection of the events leading to his departure from the band is once again inaccurate."^[11]

Josh Freese initially filled in for two shows before Alex Carapetis joined the band for remainder of the arena tour.^[12] After Carapetis' last NIN show in Argentina, Freese rejoined on a more permanent basis.

[edit] Guest artists and collaborations

Reznor has also invited many prominent guest vocalists and musicians on stage with his band to perform material outside the usual range of NIN songs.

• During Lollapalooza '91, one of the first exposures the band ever had to a wider audience than its previously underground following, Jane's Addiction members Dave Navarro and Eric Avery played guitars alongside Gibby Haynes and Ice-T for the last song of NIN's set, "Head Like a Hole".^[13]
• At the finale of two NIN shows in 1995, Marco Pirroni and Adam Ant joined the band to perform Ant's songs "Beat My Guest", "Red Scab", and "Physical (You're So)", the last of which appears as a cover on NIN's Broken.
• Marilyn Manson came on to the stage at Madison Square Garden in 2000 to sing "Starfuckers, Inc." and "The Beautiful People". This performance is a bonus feature on NIN's And All that Could Have Been DVD.
• At the 2005 Voodoo Experience festival in New Orleans and Memphis, Tennessee, NIN performed the tracks "African Student Movement" and "List of Demands" with Saul Williams from his self-titled album.

[edit] 1995 Dissonance tour with David Bowie

The Dissonance tour with co-headliner David Bowie presented a peculiar challenge for both artists: although Nine Inch Nails were at that point more commercially popular than Bowie, Reznor felt uncomfortable having his idol open the show for him. As a compromise, NIN went on first, concluding with a re-worked instrumental version of "Eraser", and then played several songs with Bowie's band: "Subterraneans", "Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)", "Reptile", "Hallo Spaceboy", and "Hurt". Over top the synthesizers in the instrumental "Subterraneans", Reznor performed a saxophone solo whilst Bowie intoned the first verse of "Scary Monsters". They sang duet throughout the mini-set, with Reznor leaving the stage at the end for Bowie's band to perform their own set.^[14][15]

[edit] 1996 Nights of Nothing showcase

Nine Inch Nails headlined three one-off shows in 1996 as part of the Nights of Nothing showcase to promote Reznor's Nothing Records. The Self Destruct lineup sans Robin Finck was joined by Kevin McMahon (who played guitar on all of the NIN songs, as well as sang Prick songs "Animal" and "Tough") and Clint Mansell (who sang Pop Will Eat Itself songs "R.S.V.P." and "Wise Up! Sucker"). Richard Patrick briefly returned to the band on this mini-tour, performing guitar and vocals on the song "Head Like a Hole" at the Irving Plaza show in New York.^[16]

[edit] 2006 Live: With_Teeth amphitheatre tour and radio performances

During the 2006 amphitheatre tour, NIN and Peter Murphy of Bauhaus performed the Pere Ubu classic "Final Solution", which was also a solo hit for Murphy. For the last show they collaborated to cover Joy Division's "Dead Souls", which NIN has regularly played since 1994.

Also during this tour Reznor, Murphy, and some other musicians performed four unique sets of their favorite songs on radio stations around the country.^[17]

1. June 7: Atlanta, GA; Trent Reznor and Peter Murphy.
   "Head Like a Hole" (originally by Nine Inch Nails); "Sanity Assassin" (by Bauhaus); "Hurt" (by Nine Inch Nails).
2. June 13: Washington, DC; Trent Reznor, Peter Murphy, TV on the Radio.
   "Dreams" (by TV On The Radio); "Final Solution" (by Pere Ubu); "Bela Lugosi's Dead" (by Bauhaus).
3. June 23: Boston, MA; Trent Reznor, Peter Murphy, Jeordie White, Atticus Ross.
   "Reptile" (by Nine Inch Nails); "Warm Leatherette" (by The Normal); "Strange Kind Of Love" (by Peter Murphy); "Nightclubbing" (by Iggy Pop).
4. July 1: Chicago, IL; Peter Murphy with Nine Inch Nails.
   "Dead Souls"; "Twenty-Four Hours"; "Warsaw"; "Atmosphere" (all songs by Joy Division).

[edit] Songs not played live

Aside from remixes, there are relatively few songs released by NIN that the live band have never re-created onstage. In rough chronological order:

Song	From album
"Purest Feeling"	Purest Feeling (officially unreleased)
"A Violet Fluid"	March of the Pigs
"A Warm Place"	The Downward Spiral
"Memorabilia" (Soft Cell cover)	Closer to God
"The Perfect Drug"	Lost Highway soundtrack
"Where Is Everybody?"	The Fragile
"I'm Looking Forward To Joining You, Finally"	The Fragile
"Underneath It All"	The Fragile
"Ripe (With Decay)"	The Fragile
"The Great Collapse"	Things Falling Apart
"Metal" (Gary Numan cover)	Things Falling Apart
"10 Miles High"	Things Falling Apart
"And All That Could Have Been"	Still
"Gone, Still"	Still - performed once for a NIN.com video
"The Persistence of Loss"	Still
"Leaving Hope"	Still
"All the Love in the World"	With Teeth
"Sunspots"	With Teeth

Remixes that have been performed live include "Closer to God" and "Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now)" — both during the Dissonance tour. The ending of "All the Pigs, All Lined Up" is appended to most performances of "March of the Pigs".

[edit] References

1. ^ Jon Zahlaway (2005-05-16). Live Review: Nine Inch Nails in Boston. LiveDaily. Retrieved on 2007-02-10. “Those who know Nine Inch Nails only from their studio recordings--industrial-rock affairs heavy on synthesized sounds--might assume that the group's material wouldn't translate well in a live setting. They'd be sorely mistaken, as evidenced by the band's Friday night (5/13) performance at Boston's Orpheum Theatre.”
2. ^ Erin Cardiff (2000-04-28). LIVE: Nine Inch Nails. ChartAttack. Retrieved on 2007-02-10. “NIN are one of the most vital and exciting rock bands to ever grace a stage.”
3. ^ Gareth Branwyn (1991-06-19). Industrial Introspection. Mondo 2000 #5, archived at WELL. Retrieved on 2007-02-10.
4. ^ Allan Wigney (2006-03-03). NIN keyboardist having a blast. Ottawa Sun, archived on Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved on 2007-02-10.
5. ^ Getting Down in It. Alternative Press, archived at The NIN Hotline (March 1990). Retrieved on 2007-02-10.
6. ^ Steve Martin (1990). Nine Inch Nails. Thrasher magazine, archived at The NIN Hotline. Retrieved on 2007-02-10.
7. ^ Stacey Sanner (July 1990). Portrait of a Nine Inch Nail. Alternative Press, archived at The NIN Hotline. Retrieved on 2007-02-10.
8. ^ An Interview With Charlie Clouser. Scene magazine, archived at The NIN Hotline (September 1996). Retrieved on 2007-02-10.
9. ^ Nails Singer Loved Omaha. Omaha World-Herald, archived at Painful Convictions (september 1994). Retrieved on 2007-02-10.
10. ^ Chris Harris (2005-09-30). Nine Inch Nails Postpone Show Due To Drummer's Heart Trouble. MTV News. Retrieved on 2007-02-10.
11. ^ ^{a b c} Gil Kaufman (2006-05-21). Ex-NIN Drummer Welcomes You To His Nightmare — Reznor Responds. MTV News. Retrieved on 2007-02-10.
12. ^ Chris Harris (2005-10-10). Nine Inch Nails Recruit Replacement Drummer. MTV News. Retrieved on 2007-02-10.
13. ^ Dave Navarro (2006-10-04). Nine Inch Nails - Head Like a Hole (Lollapalooza 1991). 6767.com. Retrieved on 2007-02-10.
14. ^ Mitch Goldman (1995-10-09). Live Review: Nine Inch Nails and David Bowie. Enterzone. Retrieved on 2007-02-10.
15. ^ Joe D'Angelo (1995-11-03). David Bowie/Nine Inch Nails. Consumable Online. Retrieved on 2007-02-10.
16. ^ Don Kaye (September 1996). Nailed! Trent's Posse Pound New York. Kerrang!, archived at The NIN Hotline. Retrieved on 2007-02-10.
17. ^ Live Radio Performances. NIN.com. Retrieved on 2007-02-10.

[edit] External links

• The NIN Historian: Tour Dates