The set was composed entirely of remixes from Trent Reznor’s deep catalog
The first full set by Nine Inch Noize capitalized on and expanded the mini-set the artists performed together nightly on the past year’s super successful Peel It Back tour at Coachella. They soaked the ready-for-it audience in the Sahara tent with broody, anxiety-laden beats and angst-filled singing that found the older millenial Coachella crowd finding both nostalgia and catharsis at once.
A surprise Nine Inch Noize album is coming next week, and the short 45 minute set gave a preview of what to expect. The set opened with a remix of Nails’ 2007 deep cut “Vessel” with Reznor and his wife Mariqueen Maandig singing next to each other in the back of a tunnel cut out of a grey foam mountain-looking stage, which served as the backdrop for a production-heavy set that included a dozen dancers clad in gray bodysuits that unnervingly made them blend into the stage when they were not writhing in unison.
The entire set was composed of beat-augmented remixes of Nine Inch Nails songs, including a brooding, slow-burn take on fan favorites like “Copy of A” and back catalog drops including “Me, I’m Not.” Other highlights included “Parasite,” a song by Reznor and Maandig’s long dormant side project How to Destroy Angels, and “Closer,” the Nine Inch Nails hit so dirty it might make Sabrina Carpenter blush, here reimagined with slapback synths and super-smack snares. The latter was accompanied by the most striking choreography of the night, as a mass of humans encircled and swallowed Reznor at the end of the song, inviting him to join them in their amorphous horde.
Last year, there was a bit of controversy when Reznor suggested that NIN was going on a performing hiatus (and then, uh, peeled it back); with the production and sonic level of this show and and album on the way, it stands to reason that Nine Inch Noize could hit the road this summer or fall, with a phenomenal production that feels of its time, teetering on the edge of the apocalypse.
