I got invited to see a NIN show recently, which was very kind of them.
The process of actually getting in, post-invite, was a bit of a weird experience: Waiting around at the front of the venue, meeting some of his PR folks, walking all the way around the outside to go in the back door to get escorted in. At one point we were given some armbands so we could do what we wanted as if we were regular concert-goers and they turned us loose.
Anyway, as we were walking around that huge place and chatting, one of them (Marcus?) asked me how I got interested in Nine Inch Nails.
And the first thing that came that came out of my mouth was "It is entirely possible that I banned Trent Reznor from IRC 30 years ago."
The response was immediate: "Never tell him that."
Anyhow, the crew that I met were all a bunch of great folks. Wonderful positivity, fun to talk to. 10/10.
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(Now, you might be wondering why I banned Trent from #nin. That's easy: We banned everyone in that channel who said they were Trent Reznor. There's only one Trent, and these imposters showed up all the time so we did the right thing and got rid of them.
Except... I read an interview with him way back then, where he was asked specifically about IRC. His response was something like "Yeah, I tried IRC once and they banned me right away. Those guys are a bunch of dicks."
>He hasn’t done anything new since Pretty Hate Machine.
As an electronic musician myself, I actually find myself agreeing with you - and I've been a fan of Trent since the beginning; lets say, envious of him from the very beginning, admittedly, also.
I think he has found a formula that brings industrial electronic synth-/picture- heavy art to the masses in a pretty clinical way.
I blame, as always in such cases, Trents' GAS. (Gear Acquisition Syndrome)
The degree to which an electronic musician sanitizes their gear, and actually more to the point: how often they do it, heavily maintains my interest in them, as a fan and as a musician.
Electronic artists who treat every single album as a chance to wipe the slate and plug in new things, are favoured in my camp. I especially like it when things go backwards and forwards - i.e. albums don't just keep getting Better Than Before™.
I mostly wrote a story about a concert. It was an amazing concert. I also wrote a missive about banning Trent Reznor from IRC three decades ago.
At the show, the music was good (of course it was -- I like NIN and have for decades), but the musicality of its performance was also very good. They all played it both with expert precision, and a great deal of passion. The endurance was staggering. And the technicals -- the management of different spaces (3 stages!), the PA, the lights, effects, video projections -- they all combined to alter my perspective of what is possible in a temporary, physical performance space.
I love going to concerts, big and small. This was my 4th NIN show. I've never been to any concert like that before.
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Anyway, you've already elected to change channels. So let's change channels.
You think Pretty Hate Machine was the embodiment of everything that Trent Reznor ever learned, or performed?
How does Broken fit into that picture? (It's very different, to me.)
How does the period-correct Purest Feeling fit into it? (It's very similar, but the horns are a bit much.)
How do the various Ghosts albums fit in there?
How do the rest of them?
What fits together, and what falls apart?
Please elaborate. While I'm not a musician and I don't have the background to dissect it myself, I do appreciate the elaborations of technical makeups of music when those who can take it apart elect to do so.
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The dude, Trent Reznor, has been publishing recorded music since 1989. I find the claim that it's all the same to be pretty extraordinary. I think that satisfaction of that claim would require extraordinary proof. (And I welcome that proof.)
I’m glad you’ve enjoyed it all and will take nothing away from that. I listen a lot of very challenging industrial and electronic music that drives most people away, so I’m not on a high horse here.
I listen to his albums and soundtracks and hear themes from Pretty Hate Machine over and over. His demo recordings before Pretty Hate Machine, which were more pop, really illuminate a lot. Maybe just once, he’ll revisit Maybe Just Once.
The process of actually getting in, post-invite, was a bit of a weird experience: Waiting around at the front of the venue, meeting some of his PR folks, walking all the way around the outside to go in the back door to get escorted in. At one point we were given some armbands so we could do what we wanted as if we were regular concert-goers and they turned us loose.
Anyway, as we were walking around that huge place and chatting, one of them (Marcus?) asked me how I got interested in Nine Inch Nails.
And the first thing that came that came out of my mouth was "It is entirely possible that I banned Trent Reznor from IRC 30 years ago."
The response was immediate: "Never tell him that."
Anyhow, the crew that I met were all a bunch of great folks. Wonderful positivity, fun to talk to. 10/10.
---
(Now, you might be wondering why I banned Trent from #nin. That's easy: We banned everyone in that channel who said they were Trent Reznor. There's only one Trent, and these imposters showed up all the time so we did the right thing and got rid of them.
Except... I read an interview with him way back then, where he was asked specifically about IRC. His response was something like "Yeah, I tried IRC once and they banned me right away. Those guys are a bunch of dicks."
Whoops.)