Nine Inch Nails and A Perfect Circle

This may sound a little strange, but I often dislike seeing very talented musicians play live. The problem is that they often concentrate so much on the technical aspect of their playing that the performance becomes dry and predictable. A Perfect Circle's performance was guilty of exactly this phenomenon. Their set was nearly note-for-note identical to their CD tracks. While this is impressive, it leaves a lot to be desired. I'm sure, however, that having more albums from which to draw material and additional touring experience will improve their live show dramatically.

Maynard's voice is incredibly impressive. His flowing harmonies and drawn-out notes blend well with the music while remaining clear and distinctive. The metallic, eerie lingering tone of his voice also works very well with the ambiance of the music. While his style is not entirely original, it definitely stands in stark contrast from short choppy vocals of many of the bands currently enjoying spots on rock’s top 20 charts. Aside from being a great vocalist, Maynard is also a freak. Wearing nothing but very revealing shorts and a wig he stopped to dedicate one song to a "balley" he witnessed at a strip club the previous night.

The music slides from beautiful drifting melodies to powerful driving choruses covering a wide array of emotion. The band's emphasis on their unity as a band is also very apparent in their performances. Every instrument has its own place in what is going on, but very rarely does any one stand out above the others.

Nine Inch Nails exploded onto the stage. I'm not sure if it was intentional or not, but they began playing so quickly that the beginning of "Ring Finger" was masked over by the music that had been playing between bands.

While similar to A Perfect Circle in many ways, Nine Inch Nails’ performance was greatly differed. First of all, the songs (especially during the first part of the set, which featured songs from older albums) were very different from their album versions. During some parts of songs, the only recognizable parts were the lyrics or a solitary beat. Another obvious contrast was the way Trent dominated the center of the stage. He slithered, convulsed, climbed anything he could find, broke keyboards, tossed guitars into the air and threw water bottles at the audience. Several songs also featured Trent singing and playing completely solo. While the other members of the band have their place on stage, there is no doubting the fact that Nine Inch Nails is Trent Reznor.

I haven't seriously listened to NIN for quite a while, mostly because of the uncomely way in which many fans become excessively obsessed with the band: often identifying too much with the anger and angst represented in the music, for the most part missing the point. A large portion of the audience at Thursday’s show demonstrated exactly why I feel like this in many different ways. Not the most typical, but the most striking, example was the youthful testosterone driven group of shirtless boys sitting directly in front of me who repeatedly banged their fists against the seats in front of them and insulted the rest of the audience members with various vulgarities for not cheering as loudly as they.

Being at the show also reminded me of something else: the reason I ever listened to Nine Inch Nails in the first place was the fact that they make truly interesting music. Ranging from quiet, open, simple arrangements usually featuring Trent softly ranting about something, to a nearly overwhelming assault of loud and fast guitars, drums and a bizarre tangle of noise effects with Trent loudly ranting about something — a remarkable balance between musical simplicity and chaos. Aside from putting on a musically solid show, NIN had an amazing light setup. There were three large color display panels hanging from the ceiling that projected different patterns and images while being raised up and down and rotated around. Those, along with other various banks of lights, completely changed the appearance of the stage for every song.

-Scribles
-photos by Bill Fishkin

More Nine Inch Nails Photos here, and more A Perfect Circle Photos here.

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