Review: Nine Inch Nails at Columbia, MO

The visuals at Friday's NIN show in Columbia were epic and extraordinary. Photos by Timothy Finn/The Star

COLUMBIA -- Thirty minutes before show time, the scene inside the Mizzou Arena looked grim. The floor in front of the stage was reasonably full, but hardly packed. Worse, the seats surrounding the floor were as empty as Arrowhead Stadium during the fourth quarter of a blow-out.

Attendance has been an issue during this Nine Inch Nails tour. Locale may have a lot to do with it. In February 2006, Trent Reznor brought his band to Kemper Arena and drew a crowd of about 10,000. That clearly wasn't going to happen tonight in this college town.

But as it turned out, the turn-out would be respectable. Blame (or credit) the late arrivals on security, which treated everyone like passengers flying from London to Beirut. (The situation was aggravated by customers like they guy in front of me, who had a small hunting knife in his pocket.)

By the time NIN took the stage, the floor was packed and the first level was relatively full. It looked like about 6,000 or so were in the place. Several times during the two-hour-plus show, they would cheer and chant and sing like a throng of 10,000.

This was one of those shows of the year. It would definitely win the "visual-effects of the decade" award if there were one. Some of them were mind-blowing, especially the interactive ones -- like the blizzard of static during "Only": It would devour Reznor; seconds later, he would emerge, as if it were surrounding him, not behind him. Or the time a roadie/techie came out with a handheld light and used it like a rag to wipe away the image on the screen, revealing another image below it. Or the swirls and clouds and plumes of smoke that danced across a bright blue Roger Dean-like landscape ...

Words aren't adequate; neither is any YouTube vid or these low-res images from a point/shoot camera. After watching this extraordinary communion of music and visuals, nothing will be the same again. Lasers, confetti, flashpots, videos? All eight-tracks and cassettes in a digital world.

The music was great, too. More surpsing: The sound was decent most of the night. Things got a little too high-end a few times, but Reznor's vocals were pretty clear all night.

The setlist included several of the lush, instrumental "Ghost" tracks, which provided respite for the ears and the legs but not for the eyes. Even then, the visuals were stunning. But the best moments were the riotous ones, those that fuse industrial/hardcore/metal with disco: "March of the Pigs," "The Great Destroyer," "Piggy" and "Head Like A Hole," which ignited one of the most cathartic sing-alongs/shout-backs I've heard in years.

Reznor, as usual, wasn't in much of a talking mood. He introduced his band (guitarist Robin Finck, drummer Josh Freese, keyboard player Alessandro Cortini and bassist Justin Meldal-Johnsen), graciously thanked the opening act, Boris, saying something like, "It's an honor to play with them."

He also thanked his fans for coming out and urged them to grab his new album free on line, and as an afterthought said something like: Get them all for free if you want. I don't give a f*** anymore.

After experiencing an evening of such extraordinary musical/visual theater -- for less than $60 -- we know that's not true. He still cares; he just has his priorities straight.

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