NINE INCH NAILS

WITH A PERFECT CIRCLE
AT THE ARROWHEAD POND, ANAHEIM - 6/6/2000

By Orren Merton

Stadium rock shows are a very particular beast. The moves, visuals, volume, and intensity that can enthrall a crowd of 5,000 often falls flat when the crowd reaches 50,000. Fantastic, engrossing songs alone do not necessarily translate into an intense stadium experience (as the phenomenal Smashing Pumpkins' less than visually stellar stadium shows attest). By the same token, vapid music that is put across in the most energetic, "larger than life," way can often create a truly unbeatable stadium experience--just ask KISS. Very few bands are capable of being both musically and theatrically engaging enough to put on an effective stadium display with deeply moving music, such as Pink Floyd. Nine Inch Nails (who used Floyd's producer Bob Ezrin for last minute assistance on the current CD, The Fragile) is definitely trying to position themselves in that last, rare category with their heroes, and in many ways were very successful, although not without a few missteps.

 
The show started with a short set from current rock darlings A Perfect Circle. Their epic, grandiose, symphonic rock and roll was definitely at home in the stadium setting. While their songs sounded great (although I thought the extreme high end was WAY too loud), visually they were nothing that translated to the last rows. Lead singer Maynard, sporting long hair wig/extensions--who in TOOL would writhe from end to end of the stage with his spasmic, snake-like moves--with A Perfect Circle merely held his water bottle and bobbed in what looked like a cross between an Ozzy Osborne imitation and a stoned stupor. Of course, maybe those are the same thing....I don't actually know how drugged out he was, of course, and he seemed coherent when expressing appreciation for being back in their home base of Southern California, and playfully hitting on the bassist's brother, who guested for a song. No other musician in the band was much more animated than he, the lights and background were not particularly impressive, and while this is a band who's epic rock music would be perfect for a smaller arena or club, perhaps they should reconsider their live show if they are mulling over another stadium jaunt.
 
 
The Nine Inch Nails show proper began in an effectively dramatic way, with the opening strains of "Pinion" from NIN's "Broken" EP beginning while the band was still behind a black curtain, with theatrical lighting building more and more excitement, until the curtain dropped and NIN launched into "Terrible Lie." Reznor and the boys were very energetic and animated, covering every inch of their stage, pushing each other over, leaning into their amplifiers, and the like. Reznor even jumped down a number of times and threw mics out to others in the audience, allowing fans to sing a line or two before those mics were cut off and another one put in front of Trent. This level of energy continued throughout the more driving songs, and coupled with dramatic lighting, was very effective in riling up the crowd and carrying the mood across. The musicianship was top notch, with great drum grooves, punchy, tasty guitar lines, great electronics, and Trent was in fine voice.
 
Many of the songs on The Fragile are such layered, technological works, that it would have been almost futile to try and reproduce them note for note--and to NIN's credit, rather than attempt to recreate the record, they instead reshaped many of the new songs they played into effective stadium songs, playing single guitar lines instead of losing the punch by layering too many together, emphasizing a particular keyboard medley, slowing down the song to really capture a main melody, singing a vocal phrase that is whispered on the CD, etc. The band obviously took great care in translating the album to the stage, and it came through. Each song, from the standout new tracks like "The Wretched" and "Even Deeper" to the more instrumental tracks such as "La Mer" or "The Mark Has Been Made" was accompanied by stark, dramatic lighting, and often 3 rectangular screens of matching imagery, which was often gorgeous, haunting, or both.
 
Perhaps the best example of reworking a song for the arena was NIN's early hit, the classic "Head Like A Hole." Reznor focused on the anthemic qualities the song possessed, and delivered an extra guitar heavy, 70s rock version that featured a larger than life chorus and even a drum break for shouting along with the band--all taken to a higher level by the massive and dramatic lighting rig that NIN brought with them.
 
 
But did they achieve stadium nirvana? Performance-wise, the energy was always great, but Reznor seemed to rely to heavily on the same moves of throwing down mics and throwing up guitars, which eroded their effectiveness after a while. The videos on the screens were often beautiful, but sometimes seemed less than connected to the songs that Reznor attached the images to, unlike Pink Floyd, for example. They did effectively fill the space when the band was more stationary, so in that sense they all did work. One of the features of the best stadium bands (Pink Floyd excepted) is that they are usually lead by larger than life figures, for whom the audience hangs on every word. Trent Reznor is that artist, and does have that sway over the crowd--but doesn't seem comfortable enough to be chatty like a Robert Plant, Mick Jagger, or David Bowie. This may be part of his charm, and when he did congratulate A Perfect Circle and genuinely and deeply thank the audience for following him through the years, he held everyone's admiration and appreciation. But to really engage tens of thousands of people in a stadium setting, making each person feel like you are talking to them personally becomes instrumental, and Reznor hasn't quite mastered that yet.
 
Ideally, it is the music that speaks to everyone, but the larger the venue, the more sound gets lost, and then showmanship and personality have to fill the holes. NIN's final song of their encore, "Hurt," for example, is a deeply, painfully personal song--but in that large a setting, with that much energy, body heat, and exhilleration in the air, you simply cannot expect 35,000+ people to respectfully sit still and contemplate the lyrics. With the right visuals, staging, and on stage banter, a song like that could still be made personal to fans that might need to be brought down to the mood. By offering a bare staging, Trent may have made the moment mean more to him, but if he's going to choose to play to a stadium crowd instead of a theater-sized crowd, he'll need to find the right way to include all of them in his private moment as well. Trent Reznor and his Nine Inch Nails have the musicianship, lights, and visuals in place, and delivered a memorable, energized, fantastic looking and sounding stadium show. When they become more comfortable with being larger than life, then Reznor will be able to truly say "nothing can stop me now..."
 

Photos by Caren Spitler
All Material © 2000 The Scene Los Angeles