What Trent Reznor & NIN Share in Common with Prince, Bowie & More

INCHEON, SOUTH KOREA - AUGUST 11: Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails performs live during the Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival 2018 on August 11, 2018 in Incheon, South Korea. (Photo by Han Myung-Gu/WireImage)

Halfway through the final night of Nine Inch Nails' six-night, sold-out stand at the Hollywood Palladium, Trent Reznor addressed the audience. "Thanks for letting us try some different s**t tonight," Reznor said.

Fans couldn't help but laugh. As if there was a choice. When you go see NIN you are seeing the show that Reznor wants you to see. But that's what fans want from one of rock's true auteurs.

It's part of the reason Reznor's disciples, and his fellow artists, from Mike Shinoda and Steve Angello to Deadmau5 and Dave Grohl, who once told the Hollywood Reporter of Reznor, "He's my generation's most talented musician-producer-songwriter," love him so much.

In September of 2017 I did a piece with LeRoy Bennett who worked as production designer with both Prince and Trent Reznor, among others, for over a decade.

At the time, Bennett told me, "Artists like Bruno [Mars], Trent Reznor, Paul [McCartney], Prince and other artists I work with, understand how to dynamically take an audience on a musical trip. Trent, to me, is very much like Prince. There is a very common thread of who they are as an artist and how they think."

Until the Bennett interview I would never have associated Reznor with Prince, but it makes sense. Like Prince, like Neil Young, Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, Patti Smith and Reznor's friend, David Bowie, whose song "I'm Afraid Of Americans," he covered at the Palladium, Reznor has the uncompromising defiance that true rock stars possess.

It's not the refusal to compromise of a petulant child; it is the integrity of an artist who makes music for themselves first. And they hope fans follow that vision. Indeed, in the encore of Saturday's masterful show, he did a suite of songs from The Fragile, including "La Mer" and "Even Deeper," which Reznor introduced by saying how these songs gave him a way out of a dark time and how nice it is for him to be able to do them now coming from a different perspective.

I attended two of the six shows, the fourth and the final show, they were totally different. And I had friends who went the night before me who saw a completely different set. Being true to themselves, NIN play what feels right that night.

That meant not doing "Closer," one of their two biggest radio hits, either show. But thankfully it meant the frenetic "Wish" and "March Of The Pigs" both shows. One of the greatest joys of seeing NIN is the absolute catharsis the band provides fans. Whatever ex, or co-worker, or boss, or friends, or family, or world affairs, are pissing you off when you walk into the building, NIN allows you to let it all go with the fervor of pogoing up and down, pumping your fist and screaming your lungs out.

But what separates NIN shows in recent years is the musical diversity and maturity. Where NIN of the '80s and early '90s was almost pure angst (though still possessing some beautiful songs like the stunning "Something I Can Never Have"), this version of NIN has evolved into an outfit that can bring out Reznor's wife and How To Destroy Angels band mate, Mariqueen Mandiig, for a gorgeous and haunting, almost trip-hop three-song set of How To Destroy Angels' material, including "Ice Age."

However, they have done so without losing any of the fury. "Head Like A Hole" on both nights, but especially Saturday, was a revelation. The song turns 30 years old next year and it still felt like it could have been written that day. Other standouts over the two nights included the always stunning "I Do Not Want This," "God Break Down The Door," "The Becoming," Piggy" and "Hurt" closing both nights.

Of the two shows, Saturday was admittedly the stronger. But that is not surprising, as it was the end of the tour and Reznor said up there, "There are a lot of emotions tonight." On Wednesday, the fourth show, Reznor said this would be the last NIN tour for the foreseeable future. When the crowd booed, he said, "I didn't say this would be the last tour ever, just for the foreseeable future."

This has been a prolific few years for Reznor and his band mates, with a trilogy of EPs, and he does now have that side gig as an Oscar-winning composer with collaborator Atticus Ross, so a break from NIN is not wholly unexpected. But given the vibrancy and urgency of this music still, the hope is NIN isn't away for too long. As I wrote in 2017 after watching them annihilate FYF fest in L.A. this music is needed in this time, for the release it allows and the way Reznor so effectively speaks to alienation. Truly great songwriting crosses generations, and underneath all of that fury, are songs that are as poignant and powerful today as they day they were written. Turns out, not surprisingly, Dave Grohl was right again.

Article Credit: Forbes | Steve Baltin