Review 7 hours ago

Lights, cameras, action: Nine Inch Nails put on a cinematic show in Dallas

Almost as many lights as a Lady Gaga concert.

Black T-shirts were the unofficial uniform of choice for the crowd at the Nine Inch Nails show at the American Airlines Center in Dallas Tuesday, March 3. But the evening was anything but dour, and most of the color over the course of the night came from the stage.

In fact, if there are recording industry awards for best live performance staging and lighting, NIN’s “Peel It Back” tour should win ‘em all. This show had smoke, roaming spotlights, strobe lights, hologram lights, shadows and live video recordings, spread across four acts, three stages and nearly two hours.

Tour opener and frequent NIN collaborator Boys Noize (née Alexander Ridha) got the night started with an hourlong DJ set at the far end of the AAC floor, on an elevated podium surrounded by red holographic lights. The crowd was still milling in as he played. There wasn’t much room to dance to the electronic music, although I did see one couple spinning and twirling on their way to their seats on the floor.

The Boys Noize set flowed seamlessly into the NIN performance, which started with Trent Reznor alone at a piano on a second, smaller stage in the middle of the arena floor. Band members slowly joined him as he kept playing “(You Made It Feel Like) Home,” a song he wrote for the “Bones And All” soundtrack with other NIN member Atticus Ross.

The first three songs of the night formed the first act of the show before Reznor, Ross and bassist Stu Brooks moved to the larger main stage at the opposite end of the arena. There, they were welcomed by drummer Josh Freese and guitarist Robin Finck for Act 2, featuring more well-known songs like “Copy Of A” and “March of the Pigs.”

The rest of the night followed the same pattern, with one more smaller stage set for Act 3 followed by a main stage Act 4.

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A cinematic production

Not to beat a dead horse for the theme of the last few concerts the Star-Telegram has reviewed, but there is no other word to describe this NIN show except “cinematic.”

A cameraperson followed Reznor from stage to stage and projected the image back on the video screens on the side of the stage. At one point during Act 1, I wondered where the light was coming from and how it was moving around on Reznor so quickly before I realized a crew member was moving around the pit by the stage, holding a spotlight.

Elsewhere, every color of light shone from the main stage. A lighting rig above the middle stage raised and lowered depending on the song, and changed colors just as frequently. The blinding white and blue lights that lit the stage during “The Hand That Feeds” called to mind a stained-glass church window.

At points, smoke obfuscated everyone on stage except for Reznor - who didn’t speak to the crowd except to introduce the touring band. This wasn’t a night for talking in between songs. This was a night for spectacle set to live music.

It helps that one can conjure up visuals just by listening to NIN’s industrial rock. That evocative quality is what makes Reznor and Ross such great film scorers for movies like “The Social Network,” “Challengers,” “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” and, most recently, “Tron: Ares.” Surprisingly, “As Alive As You Need Me To Be.” the song from “Tron,” combined with some red and white light effects, got one of the biggest crowd responses of the night.

This is not the first time this tour has come to North Texas. NIN put on this same show last September at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth.

And while arenas like Dickies and the AAC are the only kinds of venues capable of this kind of technical performance, it did feel odd at times to see people nodding heads and dancing in little seat areas to songs like “Closer,” which would be perfect in a warehouse with some strobe lights. Then again, there were a few brave souls crowd-surfing during “Head Like A Hole.”

And for all the spectacle, the show ended in much the same way it started, with Reznor and co. singing a quiet version of “Hurt” that held the crowd rapt.

It’s safe to say, they weren’t let down.