Nine Inch Nails ‘disappearing’ for a while

Today on NIN.com, Trent posted a new note, an excerpt is below:

In NIN world, 2009 marks the 20th anniversary of our first releases. I’ve been thinking for some time now it’s time to make NIN disappear for a while. Last year’s “Lights in the Sky” tour was something I’m quite proud of and seems like the culmination of what I could pull off in terms of an elaborate production.

Included in the note is mention of a tour with Jane’s Addiction, who NIN first toured with 20 years ago. This tour is going to supposedly be much less ‘scripted’, which may be a change from more recent NIN concerts. While the most recent NIN concerts have been a visual masterpiece, they are very similar, and leave little room for more improvisation in the band. With the new lineup as well, Im expecting the new tour to be closer to the ‘looser’ looking NIN one would see when they were performing various songs from Ghosts. 

While the forums are already filling up of people crying out their dislike in this move, I really don’t think its going to be all that bad:

• With Trent’s recent move into allowing everyone to remix NIN music, im sure remix.nin.com will stay alive with so much content to work with now. And with the HD video now available as well, this could only grow. For that die-hard NIN fan that needs something new, im sure this will hold over those cravings for a while (I have yet to really spend much time there, already the content is so vast).
• Just because NIN is going away may not mean Trent’s fully going away. For example, does anyone remember the Lost Highway soundtrack? This was one of the VERY rare times that the liner notes mention the song being credited JUST to Trent, and not NIN. It could be possible that Trent will continue to experiment, and even release some new stuff, not under the NIN name. 
• Trent has continuously been assisting other artists in their creations, and im sure this isnt going to stop.
• They have put out 4 albums in just a couple of years. Before that, we didn’t hear much for another 3+ years, and before that even longer (before The Fragile). Actually, there was a 6  year gap of a ‘studio’ album between The Fragile and With Teeth. 
• At the end of the With Teeth tour (which was our first NIN show), Trent said ‘its going to be a very long time before I tour in the US again’. That ‘long time’ was really only 2 years or less. 

It’s amazing that an artist and band has been together this long. And with NIN’s amazing ability, its so great that we have been graced with this for years. This isn’t the first favorite band of mine to break up – the Smashing Pumpkins did so in 2000, and then got back together over 5 years later. 

Whatever happens with NIN, I’m sure this isn’t the last we will hear of them, and watching Trent over the years, im sure he has plenty more up his sleeve.

Nine Inch Nails Live: They just keep getting better

Last week, Debs and I went to our second Nine Inch Nails show, this time at John Paul Jones arena in Charlottesville, VA. Those who know me know that i’m a pretty big NIN fan (have been since I first heard the Downward Spiral years ago, even though mom didn’t like them). I was pumped to see that they were coming back to Virginia again, and after the first concert a few years ago, we had to go again.

This time, I brought my camera. And our seats were 100x better. I was able to snap off a few shots on our little SD1000, some of which came out pretty good! I also recorded a few videos as well, trying to get some of the really cool special effects that were used.

Trent knows how to perform, and he knows that a concert is not just about the music, its about the presentation as well. In the last concert they used similar screens, but this time they were more interactive. As you can see in some of the videos, the lights would pulsate to the music. The video above is from ‘Ghost Piggy’, which as the name states, ‘Piggy’, but under more of the Ghost’s theme and mood.

Words can not nearly explain just how awesome this show was. So check out the NIN set over at flickr. And if Trent and Co are coming anywhere near your town, you need to check them out!

Listening To: ‘Apple Tree’ by Wolfmother