Industrial roots…new NIN tour
I was really into the Chicago label WaxTrax and the whole industrial movement back in the early 90s. Pretty Hate Machine from Nine Inch Nails was a real breakthrough for industrial music, and still holds up as a great album. A lot of people were turned off by the violent imagery and lack of an actual melody that was the driving force behind industrial. But, I liked the experimentation and power of the sounds. I didn’t take the rest of it too seriously. Yes, I had Doc Martens and lots of black clothing, but the nose ring and neck tattoo thing never interested me.
When Trent Reznor became an alternative/industrial god, I followed all of the Halo releases, singles and all. The other early side projects like Pigface and 1,000 Homo DJs also became part of my collection. At the time, anything involving Alain Jourgensen and Trent Reznor was gold.
I recently downloaded the tracks from the new Nine Inch Nails album Ghosts. Since my email address is now on the list, I’ve been getting messages about the new tour. Today I got an email about a pre-sale and the will be tickets personalized with the members legal name printed on the face of the ticket.
It’s a decent attempt to reduce scalping. The thing that is strange about this tour is where he’s playing. There is no New York show. There’s a Thursday night at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, CT. This is an over-the-top glossy Indian casino where busloads of retirees and suburbanites blow their mortgage payments. What’s that all about!?
There are supposed to be more dates announced later this year, so I’m assuming that he’ll do a show at Madison Square Garden. Although, I do long for the days when I saw Nine Inch Nails at a 500 capacity theater. It is quite an accomplishment though that Trent has kept the public’s interest for so long. Years between albums, no major label support. Pretty impressive…
