As a rule, Nine Inch Nails don’t play venues like the Apollo. They’ve worn various guises over the years; industrial metal upstarts on Pretty Hate Machine , nihilistic alt-rockers on The Downward Spiral , reflective impressionists on The Fragile.
But the one thing that’s always been true of them is that their live shows are sufficiently spectacular that they have to happen in an arena setting, like when they played across town at what’s now the AO Arena as part of their farewell tour in 2009. Or as they did when they made their comeback in 2014.
And yet, here we are. For their first gig in Manchester in eight years, Trent Reznor’s men make an exceedingly rare return to a theatre setting, their first time at the Apollo since February of 2007.
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With no new album to promote - they haven’t released fresh material since 2018’s Bad Witch EP - the setlist is a dealer’s choice affair, and fans of The Fragile, the group’s sprawling, electronically-inflected 104-minute masterpiece, are well catered for; they open with that record’s first two tracks, a blistering one-two of Somewhat Damaged and The Day the World Went Away.
Two things are quickly obvious. One, the downscale in capacity has not made any difference whatsoever to how blinding the light show is; photosensitive epileptics need not apply, with retina-scorching strobes used liberally.
Two, as a five-piece, without backing singers or any other accoutrements, this is a particularly raw iteration of Nine Inch Nails; in the studio, they’re only comprised of Reznor and right-hand man Atticus Ross, but on stage, Ilan Rubin’s thunderous percussion in particular makes NIN a muscular proposition.
Not that there isn’t room for the band to stray outside of the typical rock palette. At one point, as they play God Break Down the Door, Reznor conjures a saxophone out of thin air and rips through an impressive solo.
Elsewhere, this is one of the more off-kilter setlists they’ve recently played, with room for both throwback deep cuts (Sin, Something I Can Never Have, And All That Could Have Been) and artsy, ambient tracks from The Fragile (La Mer, The Frail), which provide the audience with a bit of breathing room from what is otherwise a full-scale assault on the senses.
And, ultimately, that’s what the crowd have come for. Head Like a Hole, with its huge chorus and furious lighting, is completely scintillating. Every Day Is Exactly the Same, meanwhile, makes for a huge singalong, as does Hurt, the track made famous by Johnny Cash but never as intense as when Reznor roars it.
Tonight offers few clues as to where the band are going next musically, but what it does do is serve as a searing reminder that, regardless of the size of the room, Nine Inch Nails gigs are exercises in sensory overload.
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