Nine Inch Nails @ Bell Centre▪

Is there nothing that Nine Inch Nails can’t do?! Having founded one of the most important alternative bands of the late 20th century in the form of Nine Inch Nails, nowadays you hear about them more in a movie score context. These guys have won Grammys, Emmys, Golden Globes… it’s crazy! NIN tours have therefore become somewhat of a rarity; indeed, it’s been 13 years since they last came to Montreal! To say tonight is one of the most anticipated shows of the year would certainly not be understating it.

The show starts in unsurprisingly dramatic fashion, as the thumping house music of opener Boys Noize cuts out to near silence, with just Trent at a piano on a small stage in the middle of the Bell Centre floor. Under a single spotlight, he starts with the delicate Something I Can Never Have, which sounds absolutely spectacular, and is about as quiet as the show gets all night! The rest of the band slowly join Trent as Non-Entity rolls with its eerie drum machine beat, before Trent leaves the piano altogether and prowls the perimeter of the small stage on Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now).

As the song winds down, the huge curtain screen at one end of the floor suddenly displays drummer Josh Freese, busting out beats as the rest of the band scurry from the small stage towards it. Soon enough, the curtain raises to reveal the whole band, still behind a thin sheer curtain, on which lasers and lights project throughout for some spectacular visuals, most notably on Copy of A, which sees multiple Trents surrounding the band, moving in a staggered manner, until the chorus drops and they are obliterated by strobes. Wish is classic industrial metal with an Ace of Spades structure, while a devastating Reptile and March of the Pigs tear my face off, the latter absolutely deafening in its singalong when that mellow “doesn’t it make you feel better?!” line drops. Trent rides the wave by leading a huge clapalong on the thunderous Heresy, and by the time Gave Up arrives in a flurry of red and blue lights, the pit is heaving.

The dim red light continues as Trent and Atticus scurry back across the floor to the small centre stage, where Boys Noize is waiting for them. The trio launch into the sinister electronica of She’s Gone Away, merging in elements of the NIN song Vessel and Girl Crush by Boys Noize himself. Closer is also reworked, with the small stage erupting in purple light at that vulgar chorus, before turning green on Parasite, anthemic in its I Feel Love techno vibes. The rave feels are accentuated by the smoke that pours vertically down on them from overhead. As Alive as You Need Me to Be wraps up the section on the smaller stage in epic fashion; the beat drops are massive, and the Bell Centre feels like a club! Boys Noize concludes the song by himself as Trent and Atticus hurry back to the main stage for the final act.

Mr. Self Destruct and Less Than see the full band reunited once more, with the intense strobe lights returning on The Perfect Drug, culminating in another mammoth Josh Freese drum solo. A man of few words during most of the show, Trent finally effuses: “this is f**kin’ great, it’s a privilege to be here with you guys!” In a nod to the current political climate, a cover of David Bowie’s I’m Afraid of Americans follows, with the stage smoke so thick, it looks like a gas giant when the bright stage light blazes through it.

The Hand That Feeds gets the pit bouncing once more, and the energy continues on the timeless Head Like a Hole, Trent dropping off the mic to let the band, and the rest of us, scream the chorus. Hurt closes the show almost as delicately as it starts, phone lights illuminating the room as thousands confess at the top of their lungs, “I will let you down / I will make you hurt!!!”

After an hour and three-quarters that absolutely races by, the band salute the adoring crowd, depart, and the thick black curtain drops back down to the floor.

An absolutely epic night, and unquestionably, an early gig-of-the-year contender!