Lights In the Sky Over Minneapolis

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November 30, 2008 • written by Gerard Van Wijk

The download simply would not finish. It was March 2nd, 2008, and Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) just posted his new album Ghosts I-IV on his website for download. Nobody saw it coming; especially since it was two hours of instrumental music. The servers were continually crashing under the weight of downloaders.

A few weeks later, he posted tour dates. On the list was Minneapolis, scheduled for August 2nd. Trent’s new line-up consisted of Robin Finck (Guns ‘N Roses) on guitar, Justin Meldal-Johnsen (Beck) on bass, Alessandro Cortini (Modwheelmood, The Mayfield Four, Everclear) on keyboards, and Josh Freese (A Perfect Circle, Devo, Guns N’ Roses, Sting, The Offspring) on drums.

Then on May 5th, something happened. The Slip was released, again without warning, and to add to the excitement, it was available to download free of cost from theslip.nin.com (it still is.) With the release, the tour was christened Lights In the Sky Over North America.

Lights In the Sky Over North America Logo

On August 1st, the day before Lights In the Sky Over Minneapolis, Trent received doctor’s orders not to perform. The show was rescheduled for November 25th. Several more shows were canceled or postponed as the tour continued, and Reznor continued to be sick.

With the tour, NIN is using special interactive displays, which for the first leg were experiencing glitches. The issues were cleaned up during Lights In the Sky Over South America, and were ready for the third and final leg of the tour.

The day had come, the lights in the sky had finally arrived over the Target Center in Minneapolis. Boris, the opener, was unimpressive and proved to be a rocky start. The bass was loud enough to smother the rest of the band, and to hurt the ears of listeners. However, when the bassist was not playing, they were actually pretty good.

In the downtime between Boris and NIN, there was music playing relatively quietly over the speaker, as is customary at any concert. After some time, they music was slowly overtaken by a droning, ambient noise. As the sound got louder, the lights dimmed, and the audience recognized it immediately. It was 999,999, the ambient, droning intro to The Slip. Once the lights had gone all the way, the droning ceased, and Trent’s voice was heard saying, “How did I slip int-” before he was cut off by Freese’s violent drumming to 1,000,000.

Photo taken by Shannon Lee-Vorse

The show started with a flashy, seizure-inducing light show, which continued throughout the first part of the show. The sound was crisp, and the performers were on top of their game. Trent’s microphone stand was knocked over several times during March of the Pigs, and it was clear that he was as healthy as ever.

All this time, my friend kept on bugging me about the interactive effects. “Where are they? When are they going to start? How will they work?” Although I did not have the answers to any of his questions, Trent did, and he answered them with a little camera that he used during Closer. They revealed the LCD screen at the back of the stage as he sung into a little camera, which then caused his face to be portrayed and distorted in a three-dimensional rendering on the screen. Although it was certainly cool, there were more tricks up their sleeves.

Photo taken by Shannon Lee-Vorse

After Gave Up (which was another very impressive performance) Finck’s guitar continued to drone on as they were setting up for the next part of the show. After they were done, it was revealed that there was a screen of LEDs at the front of the stage, with Justin Meldal-Johnsen (JMJ), Alessandro, Trent, and Finck in front of the screen. Freese was nowhere to be seen, and was probably taking a break. JMJ was the only one on his regular instrument, while Alessandro was behind a keyboard, and Trent and Finck were each behind a laptop/keyboard.

Photo taken by Shannon Lee-Vorse

They weren’t checking their e-mails, or if anyone had kidnapped them on facebook; they were using the laptops to play sampled drum and guitar recordings, mixing and matching them in different ways as they played The Warning and The Great Destroyer, both very electronic tracks by their nature. As they played The Warning, the LEDs were reacting to the sounds they produced, the blue bubbles behind each performer warbling. For The Great Destroyer, the screen was purely white until the breakdown at the end. It began flashing between several images (a flower and the “snow” on broken TV screens among them) very quickly.

I was beginning to achieve a better understanding of what “interactive display” meant, but the show was far from over. After another short break, the lights came back on to reveal the third and final screen: a sheet of LEDs that came down in the middle of the stage, which could be seen through. The screens lit up to reveal a desert setting. JMJ was on a cello, Alessandro on a piano, Freese and Finck were still on their native instruments, and Trent was on a marimba.

Photo taken by Shannon Lee-Vorse

They were playing tracks from Ghosts, but despite the open-mindedness required to give these songs a listen, NIN was able to captivate the audience, partially by the visual effects, and partially by their mastery of various instruments (marimba included.)

The desert turned into a swamp, and it began to rain on the front screen. Eventually, there was so much rain that the only way to see them play was through a whole in the rain made by the screen.

Then the Ghosts turned into Piggy. The band appeared to be underwater, and bubbles were floating upwards behind them as they made sound. Piggy was an opportunity for Freese to let loose and go crazy on the drum-set, and he broke into his own drum-solo. It was well performed, and even though he disregarded any sort of time signature, the other band members continued to perform their parts in the correct time. It was really quite impressive.

After the Ghosts set, they began to incorporate the flashing lights with the interactive screens. With Only, The entire front screen was static until Trent moved close enough. A hole would open up in the static to reveal him, and it followed him as he moved across the stage. He would then swipe his arm across to one side, and the static would move in that direction.

Photo taken by Shannon Lee-Vorse

Shortly after, there was a ten minute break, and then something appeared on the front screen. There were four rows of sixteen empty squares. Freese came out from behind the screen, and began to tough the boxes. As he did, each box would fill up with the color red. While he was filling the boxes with color, dots moved across the rows, and whenever a dot hit a filled box, it made a sound. Eventually, Freese had enough boxes filled to make the opening drum beat to Echoplex. Trent and company then joined in, Freese joining half-way through on his real drum-set.

Then came the second of a few pleasant surprises (the first being the performance of Down In It.) They played Reptile, which was a truly electrifying song, after which Trent apologized for the postponement.

Photo taken by Shannon Lee-Vorse

“Hey, I was sick, I couldn’t help it,” he began. “I appreciate you coming back, and I’m sorry for that hassle. We’re trying to make it up for you.”

He then introduced his band, and they continued to play. For the performance of Hurt, then entire crowd was silent (except for various drunks and those who were quietly singing along) in reverence to what is quite possibly the most personal song Trent has ever written. It was a truly enchanting piece.

At the end of the final song, the band members each had their own moment in the spotlight as they exited one at a time. Freese violently tossed his drum-sticks before leaving; Finck gave the audience a bow; JMJ gently placed his guitar down, and Alessandro also gave the audience a bow as Trent continued to play on his piano. He was the last to leave, turning to his audience, bowing, and then exiting. The lights in the sky had waved “good-bye” to Minneapolis.

Overall, it was an excellent performance. The sound was intensely close to studio-quality, the visuals were absolutely amazing, and they more than made up for the postponement with a flawless setlist.

Photo taken by Shannon Lee-Vorse

I strongly suggest that you check out some of the videos and photos of the show at www.nin.com.

(Top photo taken by Theodora Mouzakis.)

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Tagged: concert, Music, Nine Inch Nails, review  

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