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| Trent Reznor & Robin Finck of Nine Inch Nails @ Blossom Music Center (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
Although not a show from the SF Bay Area, I had the privilege of covering the recent Nine Inch Nails Rock & Roll Hall of Fame concert at the Blossom Music Center just outside Cleveland, Ohio. If you’re a frequent reader of this site, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of NIN, and considering their recent show in Berkeley, I thought this would be a relevant post in honor of the band’s induction into the Rock Hall. Enjoy!
The alarm blared at 4:30 this past Friday morning, September 23rd. Jolted awake, I grabbed my watch, hopped in the shower and threw on the clothes that I’d left out the night before, careful not to wake my wife or dog who were both still sleeping soundly; and mindful that a Lyft was due to arrive at 4:50am. I snuck downstairs and sure enough, the driver was already waiting patiently outside – five minutes early. That’s how my three day adventure began, one where I was about to experience a concert that I’ve looked forward to like no other. A concert to celebrate the induction of a band into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. A band who I’ve listened to since 1990, seen around 25 times, and have owned every piece of recorded music the mastermind behind the band has ever released. That band of course, is Nine Inch Nails. This wasn’t going to be just a regular concert, this was going to be a pilgrimage for the NIN faithful – not to New York, or LA, or Vegas for that matter. We were headed to the rural country roads of Ohio – about 40 minutes south of Cleveland – to the Blossom Music Center.
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| Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails @ Blossom Music Center (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
My journey started with the first flight out of San Jose, California with a connection in Chicago before arriving in South Bend, Indiana late Friday afternoon to meet up with the guy who originally introduced me to industrial music back in 1990. Luckily, the trip out was uneventful with flights that remained on time and amazingly, my connecting flight to South Bend was probably the shortest flight I’ve ever had – just 17 minutes in the air. Upon arrival, we hit the closest bar and worked on our plans for the next morning – a 3.5 hour drive to the Hampton Inn just down the road from the venue. From there, we’d meet-up with another colleague of mine who had made his own trek down from Rochester, New York. A five hour drive that would finally allow him to see NIN live for the first time.
So why in the world was this show going to be out at a venue so far away from any major city? Well, the venue itself is relatively close (only about 40 minutes south) to the Rock Hall which is located in downtown Cleveland. It’s also one of the largest outdoor amphitheaters in the area – and that’s been the venue of choice for NIN on this recent summer tour. But it’s also where Nine Inch Nails first began back in the late ‘80s, back when Reznor escaped the even more rural farm town of Mercer, Pennsylvania to the big city of Cleveland. Where he joined early bands like Slam Bam Boo and the Exotic Birds. Where he toiled away at the Right Track recording studio while crafting what would eventually become his debut album Pretty Hate Machine, and where he would meet guitarist Richard Patrick and drummer/programmer Chris Vrenna, two other Cleveland-based musicians who would form the original live incarnation of Nine Inch Nails. Yes, this was a homecoming of sorts, and it was pure coincidence that the Rock Hall would be in the same city as Reznor’s musical hometown.
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| Robin Finck of Nine Inch Nails @ Blossom Music Center (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
I should add that this wasn’t a formally recognized Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction concert. Those annual concerts have generally happened in New York City, where each inductee would be introduced by a mentor or early influence, followed by a video retrospective of the artist, and then a short performance that would consist of 1-3 songs from the inductees – often bringing back members who had left over the years due to splits or other reasons. Back in 2020 when Nine Inch Nails was inducted, the annual live, in-person event was cancelled due to the pandemic, so the formal ceremony was moved online with just a simple video retrospective – the performances were scrapped and the band robbed of the chance to perform. Including members such as Chris Vrenna, and Danny Lohner – both of which left the band years ago, but were inducted into the HoF due to their early tenure and impact with the band.
In 2021, Reznor made plans for a concert in downtown Cleveland at the Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica with the Pixies as show openers, but the bands were forced to cancel due to a spike covid in rates as the pandemic lingered on. But as 2022 rolled around, NIN announced this past February the band was going to give Cleveland another shot with the show that we’re talking about now. Gone were the Pixies, and replaced with two other favorite bands of mine, Ministry and Nitzer Ebb. Again, two bands you might recognize if you’re a frequent reader of this site!
But when the show was announced, Reznor never publicized anything officially linking this show with the earlier Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction, nor did he mention anything about the earlier bandmates who would have been included in the traditional Rock Hall ceremony performance. At this point, my only hope was that Trent might join Ministry on-stage for a rendition of the classic “Supernaut” – It would remain a dream of mine for the inducted members of NIN to join the band as well! Members such as Chris Vrenna and Danny Lohner, let alone other original members who were left out of the Hall – guys like Charlie Clouser and Richard Patrick.
Nine Inch Nails Past & Present @ the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (Photo: Amber Patrick)
So somewhere between when I booked my flight and the night of the concert, Trent and the Rock Hall announced that Friday, September 23rd would be ‘NIN Fan Day’ at the museum, and would consist of a Q&A session with the band. Yes, the same day that I was set to start my trek. Luckily, the event was live streamed from the Hall which I’ve embedded below, but had I known sooner, I would have definitely booked an earlier flight – but no matter. The concert was the main prize, and I’d be content just watching the stream.
In fact, the stream began as I was sitting on the runway, waiting to depart for South Bend, so I was able to catch the first 10 minutes from the plane before we took off – and that’s exactly when I realized that my fantastic dreams of the original members of NIN joining the performance scheduled the next night could actually happen – they were there in Cleveland taking part in the NIN Q&A! All of them! Even Patrick and Clouser! Would they actually join NIN on stage the next night?!? Only time would tell!!
The next day, we arrived at the hotel at about 3:30 in the afternoon. The parking lots of the venue weren’t supposed to open until about 4, so we bided our time before heading out around 4:15 to drive the 5 miles down the road to the Blossom Music Center. We figured we had nothing else to do out in farm country, so we might as well head to the venue and just relax before the show, and as soon as we turned off the main road into the entrance of the venue, we quickly realized that we weren’t the only ones to have the same idea. There were already thousands of fans there – literally thousands! We’d also been warned that the venue parking and exits are a bit of a nightmare after the show, but it was only once we turned into the park that it crystalized exactly why… There were two main ‘free’ lots that were roughly a mile away from the actual venue. There were two closer lots, but those were reserved for VIPs or paid-for premium parking, and although those lots were only a few hundred yards from the entrance to Blossom, they were the very back lots when it came to exiting later that night. Would we be able to beat the crowds and get ahead of those who had to walk the mile to the ‘front’ lots? Or would we be screwed and stuck behind the 23,000 in attendance? Another wait and see moment was upon us!
We made it to Lot B, parked and then headed to an outdoor merch stand where we nabbed some gear and dropped it back off at the car. Then we strode down to the box office where I was expecting to pick-up a photo pass for the evening. Unfortunately, we arrived so early that the bands hadn’t dropped off the guest and media lists by that point. So the 3 of us hung around the box office for about 45 minutes before heading to the administration office where the photo passes had been dropped off. While we waited initially outside the box office, we spoke to the growing number of folks who were coming to pick up tickets from the guest list. People had clearly come from all over. One woman we spoke with had flown from Atlanta, another from Maryland, another from Texas. When I mentioned this was a pilgrimage earlier, I wasn’t joking. We’d find out later that the folks who had seats around ours had also come from all over, including Wisconsin, Illinois, and Florida too. I was beginning to wonder what percentage of attendees were actually from Cleveland!!
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| Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross & Robin Finck of Nine Inch Nails @ Blossom Music Center (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
Anyway, as I was picking up my photo pass, I struck up a conversation with a couple who had also come into the admin office. I learned they flew from Austin to come to the show, and when I told them I was from San Francisco, they mentioned that they’d be out in November. I’d assumed they were just visiting as tourists, so I asked if they had plans to which the woman responded that her male companion was in a band and opening for another artist playing in SF! That piqued my curiosity considering I run this very site you’re looking at right now, so I asked where they were playing – and it turned out that it was going to be August Hall. So at this point, I pulled out my card and said for them to feel free to reach out if they needed a photographer and the guy then pulled out a sticker and handed it to me… It was Curse Mackey! Mackey’s been building a name for himself in the modern industrial scene and has even been performing in the ever-evolving line-up of Pigface, but I didn’t recognize him at all. In fact, I told him that I’d actually seen him perform in LA a few years ago when he opened for My Life With the Thrill Kill Kult and while I was down there for E3. What a small world!
At this point, I took off to check out my seat and meet-up with my friends who’d joined me. The seats were just to the right of the soundboard in section 34, which was essentially dead center. Great seats considering they weren’t up in the lawn, but there were probably 200’ from the stage. I didn’t have long to wait by that point before I had to head back up to meet the other media photographers for our escort, so I left my buddies and headed back up a long, rather steep incline, back to the admin office.
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| Douglas McCarthy of Nitzer Ebb @ Blossom Music Center (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
The night was finally, about to begin! Our escort led the way back down and to the front of the stage with just a few minutes before the 7pm opening of the show. I was giddy. Opening the night was the early EBM pioneers, Nitzer Ebb. A band loosely tied to the early industrial movement, but never closely aligned with what was going on with WaxTrax Records or Nine Inch Nails. I was curious to find the connection, but ecstatic that the band was opening, since Nitzer Ebb was also in my sphere of early ‘industrial’ artists that I loved – and who I’ve had the chance to cover multiple times when they’ve toured here in the Bay Area. The (mainly) duo of Douglas McCarthy and Bon Harris were joined by original founding member David Gooday as well. Douglas was dressed to the nines (no pun intended!) with a black shirt and suit and his now trademark aviator sunglasses. Bon, also dressed in black, but not as formally dressed as Doug, wore a black vest and pants and took his position behind a set of drum pads in the center rear of the stage. David was perched to the left behind what looked to be a small synthesizer and laptop. And that left Doug to work the stage from left to right as he belted out a ‘best of’ from across their catalog. Early hits such as ‘Join in the Chant”, “Getting Closer”, and “Lightning Man” were among my favorites from their six-song set. The band played for just about a half an hour and just sounded terrific, especially considering Doug’s been battling an on-again, off-again illness that’s forced him to bow out of a few shows and leave the vocal duties to Bon. Happily, the band sounded great, the audience responded well, and my hope is that they’ll see a renewed interest in their music with this opening slot on the show. Definitely one to catch if/when they come back to the Bay Area. You'll have your shot this Friday if you're willing to fly south for the LA Cold Waves Festival, but that's their last and only US date for the foreseeable future.
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| Bon Harris of Nitzer Ebb @ Blossom Music Center (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
Next up, was the one and only Al Jourgensen – godfather of the Industrial movement, and a giant influence on Trent Reznor. I'd even go so far in saying that Jourgensen had the most influence on Trent’s shift in sound between Pretty Hate Machine and the 1992 release of Broken. Around that time, and after the release of Pretty Hate Machine, Reznor was trying to escape his record contract with TVT records, while working closely with Al on side projects like 1000 Homo DJs, and getting pulled into the industrial noise outfit, Pigface, Trent was directly exposed to Al’s harder, louder and more bombastic style.
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| Ministry's Al Jourgensen @ Blossom Music Center (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
When Trent was finally rescued by Jimmy Iovine’s Interscope Records, Trent was able to test the promise of ‘artistic freedom’ by creating what was at that time, a bombastic departure from the synth laden pop tracks that filled Pretty Hate Machine, Broken was born. Looking back, I think it's relatively easy to point to Al's influence on Trent related to his direct exposure to industrial metal and the darker side of the music industry with respect to the drug infused chaos that would often encircle Ministry and other bands of that time. Whether it was the combination of people that entered into the orbit of Reznor and/or the influence of drugs and alcohol, the masterpieces The Downward Spiral and The Fragile were born from those early interactions with Jourgensen and the WaxTrax! industrial scene.
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| Paul D'Amour of Ministry @ Blossom Music Center (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
Jourgensen’s Ministry has been cranking metal-industrial since the mid-80’s and I’m consistently amazed that Al’s as formidable today as I remember him being in the early 90’s. The man and his band are simply juggernauts of industrial metal and show no signs of slowing down. Al’s current touring band consists of John Bechdel (keyboards), Cesar Soto (guitar), Paul D'Amour (bass), Roy Mayorga (drums), and Monte Pittman (guitar). Having wrapped up their ‘formal’ tour earlier this spring (you can read our review from the Warfield show here), they’ve been on the festival circuit throughout the summer and had just played at the Louder than Life festival in Kentucky the night before arriving in Cleveland.
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| Ministry's Al Jourgensen @ Blossom Music Center (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
Ministry's set was a bit stripped down from their full spring show. They were limited to just 45 minutes, which forced them to play just their hits and somewhat surprisingly accounted for nothing newer than 1992's Psalm 69. If you read my spring review, you'd have heard me gush over both the performance and their ode to the 1989 Ministry tour that was turned into a live concert video, In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up. On that tour, the band performed behind a chain linked fence in support of their fourth studio album, The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste. On this tour over the past year, the band's brought back the fence, along with an extremely similar setlist from that time -- which was just stellar. The only song missing was the anthem, "So What," but my guess is that they simply ran out of time. Now as I mentioned up above, after Pretty Hate Machine, Trent had been working with Al on a side project called 1000 Homo DJs. One particular track is notable because the original recording has a very recognizable lead vocal track by Trent himself. This became a problem when Trent was trying to leave TVT, so Al was forced to re-record the song with his own vocals instead of Trents due to possible legal issues with TVT. Years later, the original version was released on the Black Box box set from WaxTrax! (after TVT bought the label.) Where am I going with this you might ask? Well, one of my earlier hopes was that Ministry might end with 1000 Homo DJ's "Supernaut" (actually a Black Sabbath cover song) and have Trent join the band onstage for guest vocals to close out the Ministry set. Alas, that didn't happen, but Al did dedicate "Supernaut" to Trent before playing the song last night. Their set was still amazing even if Trent didn't join the band for a guest appearance to perform the song though, and Al closed the set by saying "Thank you so much Cleveland, that was fucking awesome." I completely agree!
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| Al Jourgensen of Ministry @ Blossom Music Center (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
So at this point in the evening, it had already been one hell of a concert from two industrial/electronic pioneers, but the main event was still ahead! And now, it was just minutes away! The time finally arrived at 9:20pm -- and just like at Berkeley only two weeks prior, billowing fog began to spew from the fog machines on either side of the stage. Luckily, and unlike the set-up at Berkeley, the fog machines periodically paused, creating slight openings for decent camera shots that I attempted to capture in a few of the photos found here. Within a minute or so of the fog filling the stage, the pulsing synth beat of "Somewhat Damaged" began to ring out -- timed with pulsing vertical lights positioned throughout the stage... And then, Trent's voice along with Robin's faint guitar picking timed with the synths opened with the song's opening line, "So Impressed With All You Do..." The main event was underway and the crowd's energy was amazing. Words can't describe the energy level I felt -- it was unlike any show I'd been to in the past. It was symbiotic and both we in the audience and the band were feeding off each other. The crowd -- and I mean the entire crowd -- rang out verse after verse and that seemed to feed right back into the band's performance. It was amazing and cyclical throughout the entire night.
We all, collectively, recognized the significance of this show -- here in Trent's hometown, celebrating the amazing accomplishment of being inducted into the Rock Hall. In fact, Trent spoke just after "Copy of A" by saying "Thank you! How are you doing tonight? We finally fucking made it here. Thank you for coming out tonight. What a fucking great night. I love this place, I have so many memories here. I grew up down the street. Thank you so much!"
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| Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails @ Blossom Music Center (Photo: Kevin Keating) |
Reznor took another break before "The Perfect Drug" to say "Alright. Still with us? We've got lots to go! I want to take a second to thank Ministry and Nitzer Ebb for sharing the stage with us. I love both those bands, and if it wasn't for Ministry, we wouldn't be here tonight." Trust me when I say, that Trent was right on all those points! Those bands are great, and there was still plenty still on deck for the rest of the evening -- including "The Perfect Drug" - a song that Trent initially rejected after recording it quickly for David Lynch's Lost Highway back in 1997. The song wasn't performed live until 2018, and I'm glad it's become a regular addition to the usual setlist. The song's fantastic and showcases the talent of the band with impressively fast drum fills from Ilan that break down to gentle vocal and piano segues before ramping up again.
"Closer" followed and kept up the energy throughout the entire Blossom Music Center. Thinking of how we were all essentially singing in unison, it's just so rare to have that throughout the full set. One or two songs, sure... But this crowd knew the words to just about everything and they were ready to sing along throughout the night. "Burn" is another track like "A Perfect Drug" that was written for a movie soundtrack, and has been periodically making it into the line-up, so I was happy to hear it was included in the set. At this point, we were close to 75 minutes into their set and I was beginning to wonder if the original members would ever make an appearance.
After "Burn", Trent & company did a great rendition of "The Hand That Feeds" -- a track that in my mind doesn't get enough attention across the catalog for its relatively catchy hooks, but the band delivered. And as I mentioned dynamic changes earlier, the band went from the driving "Hand that Feeds" into the melancholy instrumental, "The Frail." The stage lights turned dark blue and the fog machines began to crank up as Trent's lone piano notes filled the open air amphitheater and slowly built over its short two minute length. As the song was concluding, the soundscape of "Eraser" began to overlay onto the closing notes of the track. Then, the opening drum beats rang out but it wasn't just Ilan beating the toms, a drum kit had been wheeled onto the right side of the stage in the cover of darkness and fog during "The Frail". It was really happening! Joining Ilan on drums was Chris Vrenna as the two played their parts from either sides of the stage. Alesandro joined in on the bass guitar and as the intro of the song was slowly building, another synth rack was brought on stage toward the back center and none other than Charlie Clouser join the crew. The crowd was going fucking nuts at this point in the pit. A combination of awe and amazement while the song continued to build with each part slowly layering on top of the other. Danny Lohner was next to walk onto the stage and within another slow build, Richard Patrick walked from stage right to a lone mic stand that was positioned towards the front of the stage. Maybe somewhat unbelievably, Rich took vocal duties for the last and only lines of the song before repeating 'Kill me, kill me, kill me' as the song went dark. Then with his lone trademark scream, yelled 'yeah, Cleveland!'
From there, everyone remained onstage and hit the GRAMMY winning "Wish" which I've included below. I'm also impressed that the videographers who were taping the show were able to take five separate camera feeds to pull together this video within just about 24 hours. Impressive work to capture an incredible performance!
"Sin" followed, and then came one of my favorites, Broken's "Gave Up." I think one of the reasons why I like this one so much, is probably the drums and both Ilan and Chris just crushed them during their performance. The one minor issue happened early in the song when the vocals went just slightly out of sync with the beat. I'd guess that someone wasn't wearing in-ear monitors, or more likely, the band probably wasn't able to rehearse that much before the performance, so it was impressive that the songs came back to them as well as they did!
Next up was probably the biggest surprise of the night and one that I didn't even fathom. The NIN collective onstage launched into a performance of Richard Patrick's "Hey Man, Nice Shot," the song that Rich left NIN for to record under the moniker, Filter. It struck me that Trent was playing guitars and a supporting role to Rich who took lead vocals on the song. I was absolutely blown away. We were all witnessing history and one that I don't see repeating in my lifetime.
To close out the show, the assembled NIN members from across time launched into "Head Like a Hole" and I don't think I'll ever forget the feeling of being a part of the mass of folks in the pit just losing our shit. Whether we were bowing down, or screaming the song's title, we loved every minute of the show and sincerely hope that Trent will release the full video on a 4K/BluRay at some point in the not so distant future. This was easily one of the best concerts I've ever attended period, full stop. It may even be the best I've ever seen and that's put against some pretty tough comparisons of even older NIN shows. Between the amazing line-up of Nitzer Ebb, Ministry & NIN; the relation to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction; and being witness to the assembled NIN alumni who joined the show, this was a show that will not be soon forgotten!
If you've made it this far, maybe you were also there with me and I hope you walked away feeling the same as I have. Simply and utterly fortunate to have been able to make the journey to Cleveland from San Francisco and to have witnessed a historic performance with 23,000 like-minded die-hard fans. What a weekend!
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