I forgot just how *much* I used to love Nine Inch Nails in high school. It started with Broken but really picked up with The Downward Spiral and the ensuing tour, one of my first-ever shows. I was a massive fan of both those releases and Pretty Hate Machine as well, and I became a completist with all the NIN singles and remix EP's. (I think I made it to Halo Ten or Eleven.) Things cooled off with The Fragile but you never forget this stuff, as I realized last night at the Hammerstein.

"Pinion" started playing on the PA once the lights went out and the band soon exploded into "You Know What You Are," the blistering second tune on the new album. They played "Sin" second, which I recognized from the first beat. It was like that all night - I couldn't believe how well I remembered NIN's songs despite it having been so long. The intros, outros, changes, lyrics, even the quirks of the live versions all came back to me. I used to listen to a bootleg of their Woodstock '94 show a lot, and the live arrangements on the common songs last night were basically the same as back then. But what's impossible to convey on a bootleg is the amount of energy in the room. A very jacked Trent Reznor and his band were going nuts, constantly jumping around, wailing on their guitars, knocking over mic stands, flinging water on the crowd. I felt bad for the roadies. The light show was equally over-the-top (and occassionally blinding), and the crowd on the floor was completely mental. It was like one enormous mosh pit - I was very happy with a first mezzanine ticket. Look at what happened to Brooklyn Vegan's jeans down there.

I was also pretty psyched with the setlist. It was surprisingly light on With Teeth (just 3 songs, I think), which I would've liked more of (along with more TDS) - but instead we got some nice old gems in "Burn" from the Natural Born Killers soundtrack and "Suck" (!) and "Gave Up" (!!) from Broken. Also played - "March of the Pigs" (LOUD and awesome), "Terrible Lie," "Piggy," "Closer," "Hurt" (huge singalong), "Wish," and "Head Like A Hole" to end. (There were some others that I'm forgetting, including a couple Fragile tunes.) "Terrible Lie" and "Wish" were both pretty raucous (even more than the rest) live, as was "The Hand That Feeds" from the new one. I was hoping to hear "Only," but ah well.

Last night was a lot of fun - a big rock show in every sense, where it was hard to not get caught up in the spectacle of it. I'm definitely past my peak with NIN, especially compared to the many hardcore fans at the show, but I think it's time I dug out some of my old CD's and picked up the new one.

The Dresden Dolls, BTW, were one of the worst opening bands I've seen in a while. I'd heard good things about them, but most of their set was painful. They did a fun "War Pigs" cover though.

Check out what BV, Central Village, Daily Refill, Aziz, and SoF have to say about the show. PSNYC was there on Sunday, when they played "Something I Can Never Have" and "Reptile" - I'm jealous.