What a piquant second for 9 Inch Nails to be again on the street taking part in their model of David Bowie’s “I’m Afraid of Individuals.”
On the Discussion board on Thursday, for the primary present of a closing two-night stand of the electronic-rock band’s Peel It Again area tour, singer Trent Reznor didn’t elaborate on the freshly resonant subtext in Bowie’s tune (one which Reznor remixed for the late Brit and, in its music video, performed a Travis Bickle-esque creep).
However you possibly can really feel the sold-out Discussion board roil with new unease at that squelching industrial tune, as Reznor muttered Bowie’s scabrous lyrics about “Nobody wants anybody … Johnny needs p— and automobiles … God is an American.”
At this level, who isn’t a little bit afraid of Individuals? 9 Inch Nails thrive within the murk of base human intuition and tech-driven dread. Who higher to assist us limn out these emotions of disgust, rage and desolation proper now?
Now of their fourth decade as a gaggle, 9 Inch Nails — the duo of Reznor and producer/keyboardist Atticus Ross together with a carefully held touring band — does two troublesome issues terribly nicely.
For 15 years, Reznor and Ross have served as Hollywood’s eminent techno-intellectuals, with a pair of Oscar wins for his or her movie scores together with the brooding lashes of David Fincher’s “The Social Community” and the craving ambiance of Pixar’s “Soul.” They’ve an upcoming film-music competition, Future Ruins, that would be the first of its variety and caliber in Los Angeles.
1. Robin Finck of 9 Inch Nails. 2. Trent Reznor. 3. Followers react as 9 Inch Nails carry out at Kia Discussion board. (Hon Wing Chiu / For The Occasions)
However Thursday’s Discussion board present was a decadent reminder of simply how nasty and violent this band may be as nicely.
Opening on the smaller, in-the-round B-stage, Reznor took a solo-piano run via “Proper The place It Belongs,” step by step including Ross, bassist-keyboardist Alessandro Cortini and guitarist Robin Finck right into a squalling “Piggy (Nothing Can Cease Me Now),” earlier than lastly introducing drummer Josh Freese on the calisthenic drum exercise of “Want.”
Freese was a last-minute addition to the touring band, after the group unexpectedly swapped percussionists with Foo Fighters days earlier than Peel It Again kicked off. However Freese — an NIN veteran of the mid-2000s — has grow to be a fan-favorite returning hero, bolstering this lineup with pure rocker muscle.
Again on the principle stage, they redlined via “March of the Pigs” and seethed with fuzzbox rot on “Reptile.” They veiled the stage in gauze on “Copy of A,” casting dozens of Reznor shadows whereas he strutted and howled a couple of despondent, depersonalized modernity.
A second cross via the rave-ready B-stage gave a touch at what the band’s cryptically billed upcoming Coachella set may seem like. “9 Inch Noize” — implying an ongoing collaboration with their opener and collaborator, the German membership music producer Boys Noize — took type right here beneath a monolithic, blood-colored lightbox. Reznor, Ross and Boys Noize revved up a brand new single, “As Alive As You Want Me To Be” from the movie “Tron: Ares,” but additionally revamped the everlasting hit “Nearer” and “Got here Again Haunted” with an after-hours sizzle.
It’s inconceivable to think about a single as desperately sexual, as sacrilegiously sacred as “Nearer” ever making it to the Sizzling 100 at this time. For the Gen Z followers fascinated by Nails’ gothic-erotic aesthetic, it felt extra transgressive than ever.
After slashed-up takes on “The Good Drug” and “The Hand That Feeds,” the band closed out the set with an opposing pair of songs that lined the total vary of what its viewers is probably going going via at this time. How viscerally satisfying to scream “Head like a gap, black as your soul / I’d moderately die than provide you with management” as American life appears to unravel with every passing hour.
However in fact, the band closed on “Damage.” Johnny Money recorded his canonical model at 70, a canopy now synonymous with a lion in winter beginning down the grave. Simply 10 years youthful at 60, Reznor carried out it Thursday with all of the tightly coiled emotion and intimate grandeur of the child who wrote it. American life is ache; 9 Inch Nails endures.
