10.20.2018

Cold and Black and Infinite North America 2018 - Nine Inch Nails @ Kings Theatre [Night 1]

There’s something to be said for collecting. I’m not a collector in the sense that I obtain things, keep them in their wrapping, and never touch them again. I don’t go to conventions to trade my unwrapped things for other people’s unwrapped things, but there is a part of me that yearns for completion. In that sense, I enjoy the idea of “collecting” an album's live performance, in other words, hearing all of the songs on an album played live; not all in one night or in order, but over the years. That was one of my reasons for seeing Nine Inch Nails at all four of their New York shows. There’s also the fact that, while Trent Reznor recently said he’s not planning on quitting music any time soon, life’s too fucking short and why would I not see Nine Inch Nails four nights in a five day period?
Plus…I needed to see “The Perfect Drug” again. I was not ready the first time.
Even though this was the first of their two Brooklyn shows, Reznor treated it as the third in a series of four, playing eight songs not heard at the two previous shows, including two tour debuts (“I Do Not Want This”* and “Something I Can Never Have” from 1989’s Pretty Hate Machine). Over the course of this third performance, the band played half of their debut album (if you count the little “The Only Time” interpolation in “Closer”), a Gary Numan cover (“Metal”), and opened with a rare gem, “Now I’m Nothing”, which was composed and performed for their 1993 Lollapalooza stint. This particular show opener, “Now I’m Nothing” into “Terrible Lie”, has only been performed live on two other tours, 2009’s Wave Goodbye and this current tour. It might be the most powerful opening number in their repertoire and I actually consider it a sort of honor to have witnessed it live.
After this, there was to be one, final New York show. I was convinced there was nothing left to shock me, but Trent Reznor has fooled me before.

* The introduction of this into the tour’s rotation along with nine other tracks from the album indicates that another full performance of The Downward Spiral is imminent, perhaps during the band’s six night run at the Palladium in Los Angeles at the end of the year.

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