A Matter of Inches

It's a been a light year for concerts for me. In fact, this Wednesday night was only the second time I've been to one this year. The first time was for Trent Reznor's "other band," How to Destroy Angels. So it was fitting that this time was to see his better known group, Nine Inch Nails. The group is on tour promoting its latest album, Hesitation Marks. It's an album I have only heard pieces of in passing, but that didn't keep from really enjoying the show.

The set list for the show included plenty of more classic Nine Inch Nails hits among the new material, and a surprise or two along the way. I particularly enjoyed a new take on "Sanctified," still quite recognizable, but with an oddly different take on the distinctive bass line from the album version (on Pretty Hate Machine). The new album's first big single, "Come Back Haunted," was also a strong number in the set.

While the band itself was mostly stationary on stage, Trent Reznor's performance at the mic was still intense and full of energy. As a friend of mine noticed, Reznor frequently managed to make the crowd stop recording their cell phone videos because they were just that pulled into wanting to enjoy the music and the show -- a rare feat in the modern concert environment.

But, as with How to Destroy Angels, it may have been that the real star of the show was the amazing light show. Many similar techniques were used here, including the screen sometimes lowered in front of the band to serve as a see-through projection surface. But in every way, this concert just offered "more." The stage and the venue was many times larger. There were more lights, turned up to more intensity, moving in more exotic patterns, and cycling through more colors. It was a sensory feast that defies easy explanation, other than to say it was damn cool.

This was just a solid show all around, that I enjoyed a great deal more than my concert experience from earlier this year.