Nine Inch Nails still sound like the future
…And doesn’t it make you feel better?
DiSpatch: Peel It Back Tour, live at London's O2 Arena
Sensory. That’s the only word in my head. It’s a sen-sore-ree mantra, stuck on loop as I descend the endless stairs of the gargantuan O2. It's at this moment that I realise the laptop screen in my brain has fired up, the cursor is pulsating, and the dirty old habit of writing has taken over...
My friend is trying to talk to me as we exit, passing by the £100 hoodies, but I'm distracted because this lonely fragment of an idea is crawling around my skull. It's trying to find the next adjective to cling to.
It's not 'overloaded', nor 'overwhelmed'. Neither was it 'satiating' or 'satisfying'. (I’m sure I’ll figure out what word it is in a minute).
As we reach the tube station, the light trails still pulse from green to red, my ears fuzzy-ring, as sweat drips to the small of my back. It’s a multi-sense experience that feels like a runner’s high. That moment of euphoria before spectacularly wiping out.
Maybe the word I’m reaching for is “sensual” but it feels too obvious, having just witnessed over two hours of Trent Reznor sliding his fingers into fresh cracks in his soul, letting the smoke machine glow pour out.
Two hours of pummelling disco, hardcore riffs, and brutal drumming interspersed with heavenspun strings and spindly walls of synth. A set that started with a few piano tracks (‘Right Where You Belong’ and a hauntingly stripped down ‘Ruiner’), softly intense, mesmerising a hushed O2 Arena. Apart from a few “we love you Trent!!!” hollerings, 20,000 fans of the cinematic industrial alt-metal synth-hardcore harrowing-rock band are silenced, lapping up every line of this solo start.
And that voice of his, richer and more powerful than ever.
With a catalogue that’s such an embarrassment of riches, it’s hard as a Nine Inch Nails fan to know what you want to hear. So when, for the third song in, the band join Reznor on stage, and they start playing ‘Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now)’ with its big pop ear-worm chorus awash in banging techno drums and monolithic walls of guitars, it’s hard not to feel spoilt already.
Then the black-clad gents decamp the B-stage. The transition from the boxing ring in the centre of the arena to the main stage is soundtracked by the once-in-generation drummer Ilan Rubin projected across the cube-like curtains on the stage (it’s the second cube of the night, having seen what one fan joked online is a Kaaba-like structure set up around the stage in the centre of the arena during Boys Noize's banging opening DJ set).
Mahshallah brother Trent many blessings for bringing the Kaaba on tour for those who can't travel for Hajj https://t.co/I64lfBg99l
— ⚔️ Dungeon GF 🎹 (@TheLoserOf08) June 17, 2025
As the gnarly thrash of ‘Wish’ begins, it’s suddenly apparent just how unusually amazing the sound is in this enormodome. You can feel the sound, even up in the cheap seats. And the lights, oh my god the lights are an absolute smorgasboard for the eyes, accentuating every texture and enriching every thud.
The main stage is a labyrinth of curtains that allow for a series of projections throughout the set to create hologram-like apparitions. The multitude of surfaces are at their most dramatic during the incredible ‘A Copy Of A’, where photocopies of Trent Reznor become Warholian patterns. Silhouettes lean in and out of each other, like the most high-fi shadow puppets you’ve ever seen. All the while, a bright white light scans across the stage, as if you’re inside the copy-machine. Which may sound painfully literal but it hits different when the light art throughout the set is exactly that, light that’s art.
Sidebar recommendation: If you're into light-art audio-visual installations, I really recommend checking if NONOTAK are coming anywhere near you
It would be an over reach to say some of tonight’s set was remixed or rejuvenated but there’s a very different flavour to the performance in comparison to incredible NiN shows I’ve seen over the last decade. There are moments where the stage in the centre of the arena is a full on dance party, with Trent and Atticus Ross joined by Challengers-OST-collaborator Boys Noize. As great as the ravey reconstructions of ‘The Warning’ and ‘Only’ are, it’s the sensational ‘Came Back Haunted’ that is one of the moments of the night. The huh-huh-haunted refrain spinning around the arena in ways that frankly defy logic, given how bad sound can be in these big spaces. It’s an intense and intoxifying moment where I half wonder if Reznor has inhaled the inspiration he’s given a generation of artists from HEALTH to Moderat, The Knife to Linkin Park. The entire set feels in conversation with the band's past, projecting itself into a new future. At 60, Trent seems born anew.
After the mid-venue party, when the Oscar and Grammy winning film scorers run back to the main stage with its billowing fabric sheets, the set is 12 songs deep and it could happily end there. But no! ‘Mr Self Destruct’, ‘Heresy’ and the swirly synth-banger ‘Less Than’ are mere starters for a finale that goes hard, with sweet-af anthem ‘Closer’ descending into the disturbing synth-pop of ‘The Only Time’.
Respect is maybe not the first word that comes to mind with a NiN live show but the way they leave David Bowie’s parts of ‘I’m Afraid of Americans’ as instrumental sections is really powerful. The space they leave is giving my brain a little bit of room to ruminate on the most powerful man in the world. It’s the first time in two hours my thoughts have drifted outside of the room - I had no idea how much I needed this sonic annihilation!
…And doesn’t it make you feel better?
As Trent Reznor stamps on his guitar at the end of ‘Head Like A Hole’ and they begin the final song of the night (‘Hurt’ obvs) I start to wonder whether “Gasp” is the word. Then I type one word in my phone, the word that started this little dispatch.
An arena show shouldn’t feel this, this, this… much of a sensory… feast? Maybe that’s not the f-word I’m looking for but leave me alone, I’m already looking at the price of trains to catch one of the other dates on the Peel It Back tour and whether I should start a petition to bring the Future Ruins festival to the UK.
FURTHER READING
Zach Baron
Back in 2013, I interviewed Trent Reznor about the soundtrack to The Social Network
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