Nine Inch Nails - Hold the Alarms! | livemusic.fm

Despite the first half an hour of the gig being ruined by a fire alarm (that was almost audible EVEN during the thrash tracks) the first of the four Brixton dates was definitely a success. Trent Reznor, the hero of the Industrial Rock music scene for the last 20 years, put in a fine performance; and considering he is now in his forties, his post-drug additcion seems to have found him in fine physical fettle ... even if apparently his throat was playing him up! The show was quite stripped down compared to some, and the awesome lighting I'd seen from the previous tour, was quite subdued (except for some atmospheric lamp shades that swung about during one number). 

As to the tracks themselves, there was a good smattering of With Teeth, a few from The Fragile and as one would expect a fair amount from The Downward Spiral. I have to say, old gaurd fan that I am, the albums since Spiral all blend a bit into one for me - I knew I'd heard the tracks before and they were well-executed by NiN, but I couldn't tell you what they were :) However the old faves were there - Closer, Piggy, and of course Hurt. The last was preceeded by a hush that descended as Reznor, after playing a set of self-destruction frenzy up to that point, approached the lone keyboard, bathed in sweat and picked up in a solitary spotlight. Have to say it was pretty bloody good ... but I couldn't help feeling he must be getting bored of playing it by now! 

Still, maybe he likes playing the old stuff - and when NiN came on for the encore and ripped up "Head Like a Hole' for what must be like the 1000th time, you really couldn't tell that this was the oldest song in the set. The energy of Messrs Reznor and Co., even on the final number, was something like a sonic-thrash-bomb going off - Reznor screeching, with a croaking voice that was almost broken by now, gave it every last drop of emotion and effort. In fact it was so fucken good I downloaded from iTunes the next day, as for some reason I didn't have it on my digital collection. Now that's a sign of a good gig - even if it was an old track!