Nine Inch Nails peel it back at Climate Pledge Arena

Trent Reznor hasn’t lost his edge.

That seemed to be the theme of the night during Nine Inch Nails’ 100-minute, 20-song set at Climate Pledge Arena Tuesday night. Throughout the show, which was the band’s first Seattle concert in 12 years, the 60-year-old Reznor performed with a visceral energy only the music of NIN is capable of delivering.

Opener Boys Noize, an EDM DJ, played for an hour before NIN took the stage. His set segued directly into the the main event which didn’t actually begin on the main stage. Instead, the show started on a small satellite stage that was directly in the middle of the crowd. Reznor and his bandmates would return to the stage later in the show, walking through the crowd from main stage to the middle of the arena for a four-song set. It was a nice way to give such a large production a sense of intimacy and let fans be closer, pun intended, to the band.

The meat of the action happened on the main stage. From the main stage opener “Wish” to show closer “Hurt,” the main stage was where the night’s best moments happened. Highlights included a brutal “March of the Pigs” the deep cuts “Gave Up” and “Heresy” and the poppy synth beats (well, poppy for NIN) of “Less Than.”

The satellite stage is where the most interesting, and most unsuccessful, parts of the show happened. The set began there with Reznor solo at a piano delivering an acoustic “Right Where It Belongs.” The arena fell quiet during the performance giving Reznor’s vocals room to shine and making for an especially impactful way to open a hard rock show. The other satellite stage success was the band’s newest song “As Alive As You Need Me To Be.” The song is from NIN’s latest album, the soundtrack to the upcoming film “Tron: Ares.” It’s modernized chiptune sound fit in well with the rest of the band’s classics. If the song is any indication of the quality of the rest of the soundtrack then the record could be one of the best hard rock albums of the year.

Unfortunately, most everything else performed on the smaller stage fell flat, wasting an opportunity to bring excitement and more intimacy to an arena concert. Specifically, the arrangements of “Sin” and “Came Back Haunted” were misses. Reznor has a fondness for remixing his material, but these two were extremely underwhelming deliveries of classic NIN cuts. “Sin” lost its aggression and became an almost techno banger and all of the bite of “Came Back Haunted” was gone, making the song a shell of its original self.

Nine Inch Nails has always had an impressive stage show that utilizes light in interesting ways. Its current tour, the Peel It Back world tour, is no different. The main stage had video screens that were covered by a sheer curtains and as light in various hues of red and white projected onto them throughout the night with scenes of the band performing it created a stunning, nearly hypnotic effect.

Those lights and effects were especially powerful during songs like “Copy of A.” Multiple curtains enveloped the stage and projected various sized silhouettes of Reznor as he performed. That, combined with strobe lighting, made the song a standout. The band ended with “Hurt” but the lead up to the end was the real closing statement. The four-song salvo of “Closer,” “The Perfect Drug,” “The Hand That Feeds” and “Head Like A Hole” were not just a showcase of NIN’s many hits, but also a reminder of NIN’s prowess as a live unit.