Nine Inch Nails: Live

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While Nine Inch Nails live performances are often described as being charged with energy and chaos, the band's recorded output is considered a separate entity (see: Nine Inch Nails). On record, most if not all of each release is performed entirely by Trent Reznor. On stage, he assembles a group of backing musicians, usually of the traditional rock band variety, to accompany him. In this form, Nine Inch Nails has become internationally recognized as one of modern rock's most perennially exciting live acts. [1]

"I could have just gone out with tape machines or 50 keyboards or whatever and recreated the sound of the record, but I'm much more interested in the challenge of having 4 musicians interpret what was initially composed by one person on a computer. This way, I'm not bored, there's a lot of interaction and it's a unique interpretation of my music. The record and the shows are quite different." -Trent Reznor, 1991 [2]

1 Tour band members
2 Guest artists
- 2.1 The Dissonance tour with David Bowie
- 2.2 Nights of Nothing 1996
3 Songs not played live

[edit] Tour band members

Aside from Reznor himself (who has contributed vocals, guitar, bass, synthesizer, saxophone, tambourine and mbira), the live lineup has been modified before each major tour begins.

[edit] Pre-Pretty Hate Machine tour (October 1988)

The first band was assembled to support Skinny Puppy on several dates, and was composed of what was described in a Goldmine Magazine article as "session musicians." The band was apparently poorly received, as they were asked to leave the tour after 10 dates.

[edit] Pretty Hate Machine-era tours (October 1989 - September 1991)

(Pretty Hate Machine promo tour; Jesus and Mary Chain support tour; Peter Murphy support tour; Hate '90; Lollapalooza '91; European 1991 mini-tour)

Richard Patrick - Guitar
Chris Vrenna - Drums (beginning of tour)
Jeff Ward - Drums (remainder of tour)
David Haymes - Synthesizer (part of tour)[3]
Nick Rushe - Synthesizer (part of tour)[4]
Lee Mars - Synthesizer (part of tour)[5]
James Woolley - Synthesizer (remainder of tour)

[edit] The Downward Spiral-era tours (March 1994 - December 1995)

Main article: Closure (Nine Inch Nails VHS)

(Self Destruct tour; Woodstock '94; Further Down the Spiral tour; Dissonance side of David Bowie's Outside tour; club tour with Helmet)

Robin Finck - Guitar, Synthesizer
Danny Lohner - Bass, Guitar, Synthesizer
Chris Vrenna - Drums
James Woolley - Synthesizer (1994)
Charlie Clouser - Synthesizer (1995)
Sean Beavan - FOH engineer and background vocals [6]

[edit] The Fragile-era tours (November 1999 - July 2000)

Main article: And All that Could Have Been

(Fragility 1.0; Fragility 2.0; European mini-tour)

Robin Finck - Guitar, Synthesizer
Danny Lohner - Bass, Guitar, Synthesizer
Jerome Dillon - Drums
Charlie Clouser - Synthesizer, Theremin

[edit] With Teeth-era tours (March 2005 - July 2006)

Main article: Beside You in Time

(Live: With_Teeth club tour, international tour, arena tour, amphitheatres tour)

Aaron North (formerly Aaron Icarus of The Icarus Line) - Guitar
Jeordie White (formerly Twiggy Ramirez of Marilyn Manson) - Bass, Guitar, Synthesizer
Alessandro Cortini - Synthesizer, Guitar, Bass
Jerome Dillon - Drums (March–October 2005)
Josh Freese - Drums (October 4–5, 2005; December 6th, 2005–Onward)
Alex Carapetis - Drums (October 7–December 1st, 2005)

[edit] The next era (February 2007 - ?)

(Nine Inch Nails Performance 2007 in Europe)

As announced by Reznor on The Spiral forum (registration required), "the band personnel will remain the same - Jeordie White, Josh Freese, Aaron North and Alessandro Cortini."

[edit] Guest artists

Reznor has also invited many prominent guest vocalists and musicians on stage with his band to perform material outside the usual range of NIN songs.

During Lollapalooza '91, one of the first exposures the band ever had to a wider audience than its previously underground following, Jane's Addiction members Dave Navarro and Eric Avery played guitars alongside Gibby Haynes and Ice-T for the last song of NIN's set, "Head Like A Hole".[7]
At the finale of two NIN shows in 1995, Marco Pirroni and Adam Ant performed Ant's songs "Beat My Guest", "Red Scab", and "Physical (You're So)", the last of which appears on NIN's Broken.
Marilyn Manson came on to the stage of Madison Square Gardens in 2000 to sing "Starfuckers, Inc." and "The Beautiful People". This performance is a bonus feature on NIN's And All that Could Have Been DVD.
At the 2005 Voodoo Experience festival in New Orleans and Memphis, Tennesee, NIN performed the tracks "African Student Movement" and "List of Demands" with Saul Williams from his self-titled album.
On the recent 2006 Live: With Teeth tour, NIN and Peter Murphy of Bauhaus performed the Pere Ubu classic "Final Solution", which was also a solo hit for Murphy. For the last show they collaborated to cover Joy Division's "Dead Souls", which NIN has regularly played since 1994. This followed the invited audience-only performance in Chicago of four Joy Division songs with Murphy: "Dead Souls", "Twenty-Four Hours", "Warsaw" and "Atmosphere".[8]

[edit] The Dissonance tour with David Bowie

The 1995 Dissonance tour with co-headliner David Bowie presented a peculiar challenge for both artists: although Nine Inch Nails were at that point more commercially popular than Bowie, Reznor felt uncomfortable having his idol open the show for him. As a compromise, NIN went on first, concluding with a re-worked instrumental version of "Eraser", and then played several songs with Bowie's band: "Subterraneans", "Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)", "Reptile", "Hallo Spaceboy", and "Hurt". Over top of the synthesizers in the instrumental "Subterraneans", Reznor performed a saxophone solo while Bowie intoned the first verse of "Scary Monsters". They sang duet throughout the mini-set, with Reznor leaving the stage at the end for Bowie's band to perform their own set.[9]

[edit] Nights of Nothing 1996

NIN headlined three one-off shows in 1996 as part of the "Nights of Nothing" showcase. The Self Destruct lineup sans Robin Finck was joined by Kevin McMahon (who played guitar on all of the NIN songs, as well as sang Prick songs "Animal" and "Tough") and Clint Mansell (who sang PWEI songs "R.S.V.P." and "Wise Up! Sucker"). Richard Patrick briefly returned to the band on this mini-tour, performing guitar and vocals on the song "Head Like A Hole" at the Irving Plaza show in New York.[10]

[edit] Songs not played live

Aside from remixes (of which two prominent examples have been performed live: "Closer to God" and "Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now)" during the Outside tour), there are some songs recorded by NIN that the live band have never re-created onstage. In rough chronological order: