Last night at the LA Palladium, Nine Inch Nails tore through The Downward Spiral uninterrupted from start to finish. This was no episode of VH1 Storytellers where Trent elucidates on where he was in his life when he wrote the lyrics, I want to fuck everyone in the world. In fact, he didn’t say a word between “Mr. Self Destruct” and “Hurt”…then they played another hour. The whole thing felt like the greatest encore I’ve ever seen from a band.

I’m positive that there will be a wealth of clips that pop up on YouTube from this show, as there were hundreds of videocameras taping…even some pro HD cams (It’s Hollywood).

Here’s a clip of one of the highlights for me, “The Becoming“:

Edit: I replaced the clip from this morning with this one, it’s better

Though witnessing The Downward Spiral performed in its entirety was truly incredible, my favorite moment of the show was Trent performing one of his new songs, “Lights In The Sky.” You could tell he was really feeling it.

Also, Gary Numan was invited out and they played, “Metal“ then “Cars“:

It seemed everyone was super stoked to be a part of this show, especially this guy that I noticed in the crowd and shot with my iPhone:

Seeing this final (?) live NIN show with Robin Finck on guitar felt right. Aaron North was no slouch, but with Finck it feels truer. While he was gone, I always felt like his absence was being filled in by a special guest. Also, that dude that replaced Josh Freese on drums is a beast. Another tidbit worth mentioning was the spotting of Bloglin muse, Grant Morrison in the crowd. He was wearing a sport coat, white jeans and Prada shoes. He was slick and has a hot wife. Oh yeah, and Mew opened and were remarkable.

Last night was special. Trent Reznor was able to transform a 4000 seat capacity venue into one of the most intimate concerts I’ve ever seen.

- Cornbluth