[kj] Nine Inch Nails at The Hollywood Palladium Last Night

[The Mighty TB]

Great, great show, easily the best NIN show I've seen in my 19 years of 
seeing this band and this was with Trent Reznor being sick.

Nine Inch Nails is supposedly "retiring" (at least from touring) after these 
final group of shows which are being played in small theater sized venues 
and clubs.  The tour is winding down here in Los Angeles this week with four 
shows at the Hollywood Palladium, The Fonda, The Wiltern and the last show 
at the tiny Echoplex bar on Sunday. Tickets which were sold only on the NIN 
website sold out instantly a month ago and have proven to be a very tough 
ticket to get.  I missed out on the sale and having seen the band early this 
Summer with Jane's Addiction, I was planning on passing up these last shows 
due to the hassle.  But after reading about the wildly changing from night 
to night setlists for the NY and Chicago shows, I decided to give it a shot 
even though tickets were going for astronomical prices on eBay.  Yesterday 
literally hours before the show, I got an e-mail from someone on the NIN 
forum that they had an extra ticket for face value ($65) and after meeting 
the seller, was in for the Palladium show.

Long story short, NIN opened with Mr Self Destruct and played the entire 
Downward Spiral album from start to finish in order which included one or 
two songs which had only been performed once before at the NY show where 
they also performed the entire album who's performance at the time looked to 
be a one-off deal.  This was the setlist:

Mr. Self Destruct
Piggy
Heresy
March Of The Pigs
Closer
Ruiner
The Becoming
I Do Not Want This
Big Man With A Gun
A Warm Place
Eraser
Reptile
The Downward Spiral
Hurt
++++++
1,000,000
Terrible Lie
Lights in the Sky
Burn
Gave Up
Suck
Metal (with Gary Numan)
Cars (with Gary Numan)
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like a Hole

Before performing "Burn," Trent mentioned he was fighting a bad cold and 
couldn't hear for shit and apologized for his voice (which really sounded 
fairly good until he mentioned being sick).  Going through "Burn," it became 
apparent he was starting to have a rough time.  After "Suck," Reznor briefly 
touched upon his early influences which led to Gary Numan joining the band 
for his songs, "Metal" and "Cars" which I thought was fucking excellent but 
many in the crowd seemed clueless and uninterested for the two songs.

It's been about 8 or so years since I last saw a show at the Palladium (1st 
show was The Clash way back in '82) so seeing a show once again at the 
"renovated" Palladium was very nostalgic. Everything seemed to run very 
smoothly like clockwork as far as sticking to the advertised schedule. The 
massive line that snaked all the way around the block the Palladium is on 
prior to the doors opening at 6:30 moved quickly and most people got in 
right around 7:45 leaving virtually no wait time for people coming in later. 
The sound was excellent pretty much anywhere you stood although the sweet 
spot was dead center about 2/3rds back from the stage. I could have done 
without either opening band. Mew was like a third rate Secret Machines (who 
I really like).

Which leads to the only real downside which was the audience seemed a bit 
subdued to the point of being perhaps a bit too polite which has it's pros 
and cons for a NIN show.  And during "Lights in the Sky," the acoustics of 
the Palladium made the annoying chatting from those in the VIP balcony 
during this quiet and intense song very distracting.

I know a lot of people here rag on Reznor and NIN in general for a variety 
of things, but there's no denying Reznor knows exactly how to not only 
satisfy the band's fans, but maintain a honest legacy for his band and 
music.  Plus, the guy really has an amazing work ethic, especially in the 
last half decade.  In this context, it's almost shocking that barely an hour 
after last night's show ended, tonight's show at The Fonda was 
cancelled/postponed due to Reznor's illness.

T.B.