NINE INCH NAILS frontman Trent Reznor spoke to Canada's Chart Attack last week about the group's new album, "With Teeth", and NIN's current tour of more "intimate" venues.
On the tour:
"We wanted to do it because it’s fun, I like playing those size shows. But also we really weren’t sure how big a venue we could play. We were kind of seeing how tickets went for this and if it warranted coming back.
"I would imagine on the fall tour it will be more thought out, and probably the production will be up several notches, but that’s all hypothesis."
On the criticism that the new single, "The Hand That Feeds", boasts a more "mainstream" direction than NIN's past offerings:
"Well, there are no songs like that on 'The Fragile'. 'Hand That Feeds' has an immediacy to it. The good part of it is, is that you can latch onto it. The bad part of it is that that's what burns out the quickest. Someone leaked it on the Internet and I made the mistake of being led to some fucking discussion boards of people bitching about what it sounds like. Fuck you. Out of the context of the album, it's probably the most accessible thing I've done, so I understand your concerns. But the copy that got out was off a cassette and it sounded terrible. Having a smattering of stuff that goes from accessible to things that are more unusual, more interesting, I think that's good. It wasn't a calculated attempt to get on the radio."
In other news, Rolling Stone magazine has published a review of the opening concert of NINE INCH NAILS' U.S. tour, which took place on Wednesday in Fresno, California.
Heres the review :
Nine Inch Nails leader Trent Reznor told Rolling Stone during last year's Grammy weekend that he was "coming back to combat all the shitty music out there." Well, it took thirteen months, but, last night, Reznor brought the fight back to his most effective battleground, returning to the stage at the William Saroyan Theatre in Fresno, California.
Backed by the newest incarnation of his ever-evolving band, Reznor debuted material from the group's long-awaited, With Teeth, due May 3rd, and delved liberally into his back catalogue for a ferocious eighty-minute set.
A buffed-up and black-clad Reznor took the stage at nine to a standing ovation from the capacity crowd, most of whom were also in black and wearing NIN shirts from past tours. He opened with a one-two punch of two new tracks: "Love Is Not Enough" and the brutal "You Know What You Are," a song whose venom recalls John Lennon's "How Do You Sleep." Despite the fact the majority of the crowd hadn't heard the new material, they quickly picked up on the latter track's refrain of, "Don't you fucking know what you are," turning it into one of the many of the night's sing-alongs.
The energy in the theater mounted with a savage "March of the Pigs" -- although Reznor, performing for the first time in more than four years, wore a huge grin as he sang the line, "Doesn't it make you feel better." Reznor acknowledged his absence from the stage simply by saying, "It's been a long fucking time," to a roar of cheers. He added, "This is an old favorite -- of mine, that is," before launching into "Burn," from the Natural Born Killers soundtrack.
Before the new album's title track, a scathing look at a relationship's broken promises, Reznor approached the microphone like a prize fighter, psyching himself out with a yell and jumping up and down as the four musicians behind him began the opening notes. The song moves from a booming rock beat to a tender keyboard interlude, with Reznor singing repeatedly, "I can't go through this again."
Among the other new songs debuted were "The Hand That Feeds," which mixed Reznor's snarl with an infectious pop beat that even prompted a few women in the audience to start dancing, and the distortion-laden "The Lines Begin to Blur." As for classic material, NIN offered up "Closer," "Terrible Lie," "Piggy," "Wish" and "Starfuckers, Inc.," among other hits.
The crowd stayed with Reznor and mates in the softer moments as well, breaking out lighters old-school style for a sing-along rendition of "Hurt," which found the frontman behind a keyboard at center stage.
The night ended at 10:30, surprisingly sans encore, with a raucous performance of "Head Like a Hole." Actually, no encore was necessary, as Reznor and band had made their point: Nine Inch Nails are back.
