Artists : Nine Inch Nails – Alec Empire
Place : Nîmes
Venue : Arènes
Date : 28-07-2009
Audience : 2 500 people.
On this 7th of July 2009, Nimes is the hottest town in France. As the event gets closer, the temperature rises a notch for Nine Inch Nails fans. Our friend Trent is not far now, getting ready backstage for a show of historical dimensions. NIN playing in Nimes Arena is definitely something worth seeing.
Great line-up !
The opening band is Alec Empire. Their music is more industrial and ebm than metal. Alec Empire is a German musician who is best known for being one of the founders of band Atari Teenage Riot. He sings whilst a woman on his left deals with the electronics. As we might have expected, the sound is almost military as it is electronic and relies mainly on the beats created by the missus. Red lipstick, black boots and glasses, clearly our friend is doing a “no I will not smile because I’m making industrial music.”… Even if the show takes a while to kick off, the crowd does end up getting into the combos atmosphere and become more receptive towards the end of the show.
The songs go through catchy parts and some more destructed parts. As he sings, Alec Empire also plays his guitar, added a more human side to the music which seems a bit too robotic at this point. Anyway, even though we were a bit bored during this set, we can admit that the band were able to captivate the interest of the crowd overall. Well done to them, because it can’t be easy doing that when you’re only two people and the space is so overwhelmingly huge…
God is (not) dead.
After the announcement that Nine Inch Nails were ending their career, the band have been off on a last world tour where they have been performing some of their rarer songs. Trent enjoys making his followers wait. By 9.20 pm there’s still no sign of them, and the eager crowd has already been waiting for over 40 minutes. Around 2500 people have turned up tonight to see the American group’s show. As said before, the band’s fans that are seeing them for the first time on stage this year have very high expectations. Especially since the shows in both Paris and Esch-sur-Alzette were unanimously celebrated.
It is therefore with uninhibited joy that we welcome the four musicians unto the stage. It could be said the choosing the calm song “Home” as a first song was debatable, which makes it hard to get into the track from the controversial album With Teeth. However, the next song manages to heat up the Nimes crowd a little with “1,000,000-Letting You” from The Slip album playing next. Trent seems relaxed and in good shape especially, in faded blue jeans and a tight white t-shirt. We notice straight away that the sound is incredibly clear. We might have not expected this from a venue that was not really designed for live musical performances. Luckily, it turns out to be the opposite, which is great news because it allows us to enjoy this amazing gig even more thoroughly.
Ilan Rubin.
Indeed, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Nimes crowd were able to witness an incredible concert. Why you might ask? First of all the light show was of great standard. Hit songs which are made for live performances such as “Wish” or “Mr Self Destruct” take immense proportions when played with the lighting effects organised by Trent. They tended to follow the changes in rhythm of the songs throughout the show. Overall this creates a sense of almost surgical precision, enhancing the feeling of the uppercut impression that a Nine Inch Nails concert represents. Furthermore, the choice of colours does not revolve around reds and blues etc as do most heavy metal concerts, seemingly lacking interest in the atmosphere. Yet this debates remains where it is for the moment because Trent offers us merely a white tone of shading, lifted by the many strobe lights and other lighting devices.
The colour white has many varieties and the show was brilliant, however, we could remark that the one-dimensional nature of the lighting was a negative aspect. When the sound is violent, the strobe lights come on hard, when it’s calm, the pretty little white lights appears… Although the lighting is superb (a halo could be noticed on top of Trent’s Christ-like figure during the song Hurt), we realised after the two hour show, that they could have added maybe a few other colours…
Enough quibbling. The audience tonight are getting a slap in the face when it comes to how good this gig is, and even if Trent is a major part of this success, it must be noted that his fellow musicians are also doing an extremely good job and should not be placed in a lower frame. Ilan Rubin is honestly an incredibly talented drummer (even though he has a 70’s haircut that makes him look like French techno artist Sliimy!). Justin Meldal-Johnsen, the bassist/double bassist, is just as talented (and faithful to Trent Reznor) as Robin Finck, who notably played with Guns ‘N’ Roses. Trent’s musicians are well and truly part of the show as they add vocals to the choruses and grab the synthesisers and sequencers at the master’s demands.
Justin Meldal-Johnsen, a tall lad who always seems fair.
So the show is awesome and when it comes to the parts we’re most interested in such as the set list, that’s when things get heavy. Trent chose to modify many of the tracks from the previous gigs, meaning that we get the tremendous “Sin” (perhaps the best track on Pretty Hate Machine?), to the dance floor fillers “Gave Up” or “Hand That Feeds” and some lighters touches in the calmer atmospheres of “La Mer”. “Piggy” sounds much better live, as the energy is increased to the enth degree! As Trent spoils his crowd, the audience is happy to comply. It seems that Trent Reznor, pioneer of industrial metal, is not just anybody. There is utmost respect between the Nine Inch Nails fans and Mr Reznor. He knows exactly what the crowd are expecting from him and so he offers a great stage show with a colossal amount of variety. This can be seen as he is able to ferociously play on his electronic instruments (yes yes, it is possible) and then run over to the microphone to pick up on the vocals.
Robin Finck.
Speaking of ferociousness, the front man even manages to break his sequencer after jumping on it so much during the show! According to this, Trent’s stage antics are original and seem very personal. His live appearance also seems very physical and impressive, as he strenuously grabs the mic with both hands. Not surprise why he has to change t-shirt during the show then! By playing such a wide variety of instruments on stage (guitar, sequencer, piano etc), we are reminded that you need to be quite talented in order to produce such hypnotic and unique atmospheres. How can we not mention the transition between “La Mer – The Frail – The Wretched”, with beautiful colour tinted lights underlining the change? Despite the fact that NIN albums seems irregular in terms of quality, it still applies to say that Trent and the band have an amazing capacity to make intense instrumental pieces that are always as captivating and meticulous.
Trent is here!
“Meticulous”: this is a term that corresponds perfectly with Trent Reznor’s overall artistic stance. The proof of this can be seen in the three different set lists below from the concerts in Nimes, Esch and Paris. The concert is Nimes was very good because it was rich, original and varied. Even so, considering Nine Inch Nail’s huge discography, people will always find something to complain about whilst looking at the various set lists, such as:
« Aw man! They didn’t play that one, the f*ckers! ».
Nîmes set-list:
Home
1,000,000
Letting You
Sin
March of the Pigs
Piggy
Metal (Gary Numan cover)
The Line Begins To Blur
Head Down
Burn
Gave Up
La Mer
The Frail The Wretched
Non-Entity
I Do Not Want This
The Downward Spiral
Wish
Survivalism
Mr. Self Destruct
Echoplex
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like A Hole
Encore:
Hurt
Esch-sur-Alzette set-list:
Pinion
Wish
Last
Discipline
March Of The Pigs
Piggy
Reptile
Burn
Gave Up
La Mer
Something I Can Never Have
Non-Entity
Gone, Still
The Downward Spiral
Mr. Self Destruct
1,000,000
Echoplex
Survivalism
The Good Soldier
The Day The World Went Away
Dead Souls (Joy Division cover)
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like A Hole
Hurt
Paris set-list:
Somewhat Damaged
Terrible Lie
Heresy
March of the Pigs
Reptile
The Becoming
I’m Afraid Of Americans (David Bowie cover)
Burn
Gave Up
La Mer
The Fragile
Non-Entity
Gone Still
The Way Out is Trough
Wish
Survivalism
Physical (You’re so) (Adam Ant cover)
The Day The World Went Away
Hurt
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like A Hole
