i tried to translate my "review" from
my website into english, with a little help of an online dictionary. it is a pretty long text so i don´t know if you want to read it anyway - perhaps it is a bit spiteful at some points.
here it goes:
Travelled from Frankfurt i was looking forward to some kind of procession, having the fragility concert in mind, back in 1999 in düsseldorf at the adequately fucked up “stahlwerk”, a thousands of things went through my head, before, during and after the concert.
All that had been and all that could have been.
Arriving at the location, the Columbiahalle, it was obvious that the tour would continue with its medium size-kind-of-thing. It was announced as a “stripped-down” tour, because of “With teeth” would be a straight rock album without any arty meanders, so the stage was an expression of a new clarity, compatible to Reznors sobriety and direct confrontation with the crowd. So there were these big neon tubes along with some strobes in perfect timing and two spots looking like those electro sepias from “matrix”.
“the fragile” is over
talking about a record which has gone double platinum status as about a commercial flop is weird, especially in case of a band to whom it was always important stylistically to be reserved to an enlightened circle of chosen ones and which does not recruit its fanbase from one stinted scene (so neither a long-haired headbanger nor a romantic-gothic retro-girlie is going to be a nin-fan inevitably).
But even Reznor himself keeps on bashing at his millennium work: Understandable when it is about the process of making the record because of the fear, the neurotic perfectionism, isolation and pressure from the “saviour of rock”-status he never asked for, but annoying when he comes up with the theory that no one would know the track “the big comedown” because it was too difficult to listen to the double album in its entire sum.
Indeed, the waves of expectations did not went as high this time as they did with all this megahype-mess between “tds” and “tf” in the mainstream public but they were high enough to multiply any vital signs out of the nothing records grot within the huge fan community, even if they sounded obscure, such as that the nine inch nails were dead (2002) or that the new record would be recorded in mono (2004).
Both news turned out to be wrong but “with teeth” is effectively less theatralic, the songs are finding their way to the ear pretty easily and they work pretty good there as well, but there are less surprises at the hundredth rotation to explore. Reznor managed to avoid any stumbling block the doubters would have liked to see: The accusation of repetition and soulless phrases.
You can even call the new album “pop” and I myself wouldn´t bother about this (with the second half of “the fragile” in mind) and there is some continuity in the chronology of the releases: at first there was coquetting with the dark side, then there was self-destruction, then some attempt of healing the uncontrollable auto-aggression and finally the life after the big bang. It all went synchronal to Reznors addiction and maybe to some life within the fan community during the last sixteen years.
That´s why “all the love in the world” is one of my favourite tracks on the album, while “you know what you are” seems to me like a debris because of its traditionalism.
Greatest Hits and Motörhead
While the last big MonsterTours were dominated in their Look&Feel by the respective monsteralbum, the current setlist did not change that much since Fresno, it remains unspecific. Just a few tracks were given a try and then dropped pretty soon (like “everyday is exactly the same”).
The program could be called “greatest hits”, the new songs are a minority.
Of course it is nice to serve some proven remedys to the crowd but the repetition of classics can damage the relevance and authenticity Reznor still stages at the interviews, even without being asked.
The new band did not seem optimised to me at a few bootlegs I listened to, which is disadvantageous to a perfectionistic mastermind like Reznor. (You can see what I mean if you pay attention to the background vocal-stuff of the other bandmembers). This impression remained during the Berlin concert a bit.
Well, I love Nine Inch Nails (
as you can see at my website), but my love isn´t tangible enough to satisfy it with a high pogo-factor and it is not unconditionally enough to ignore that there is not enough challenge to let the love play with.
A fascination which is based mostly on self-mystification can ebb if the light is on for too long or when the impression is mainly about remembrance.
Now, when Reznor performs “Hurt”, beside the sighs and the sweat, he just plays a song. It is no message from the bottom of the spiral anymore.
Would the Nine Inch Nails run the risk of becoming some kind of Motörhead with a oldened frontman with pumped-up muscles and coloured hair who repeats his old tracks forever?
Actually I don´t think so. And there is still the hope, that they will avail the two-years-contract of the new “band” as a work in progress for new material as well, perhaps even for a new record.
And probably Reznor wouldn´t like too much repetition neither and he´ll probably know that he has touched heaven as an artist several times with different stuff, such as “hurt”, “leaving hope”, “and all that could have been”, “the great below”, “even deeper” and recently with “right where it belongs” and “beside you in time”. And his butt seems to enjoy swinging to danceable music as well like many songs do activate this kind of dancing already, like “only”, “into the void”, “please” or the recent live version of “closer”.
But Reznor is contradictory as well: He thinks „Starfuckers Inc.“ is a silly song and he says he was fed up with “Hand that feeds” already, so why does he play both songs again and again? And when “Starfuckers” is silly, what could you say about “Sin” or “Suck”?
The Setting
But back again to the recent Berlin performance: Several tracks worked perfectly – like the new live versions of “something I can´t never have” and “closer”. “Love is not enough”, “home” and “burn” were even better than the studio versions.
But I´m afraid that one of my favourite tracks of “With teeth”, “the line begins to blur” still does not work live.
The crowd was in its majority nice, some of the people were pretty stylish but not too much retro-gothic-look around. There were some “louts” (?!) as well like the 2m-basketball-fan in front of me who made digicam-pictures all the time and later threatened a long-haired nin-fan to hit him in the face because he moved 0,5 metres forward during the basketball-fan´s absence.
I liked the
Dresden Dolls a lot. I had already known their recent record. They worked hard to get the attention they deserve, it was a performance enthusiasm instead of routine. They earned the biggest applause with “coin-operated boy” and “war pigs”. Later they were signing some autographs at the merchandise desk with was overcrowded by nin fans due to other reasons: Most of the t-shirts were sold old, except of size S or XL. But the limited lithographs were available until the end, perhaps because of their format (A2, A3 or something like that) and their price (15€).
I am pretty sure that most of the people enjoyed the show a lot, but afterwards I heard a radio reporter from Radio Fritz (Berlin) summarizing the visitor´s comments: A lot of people would have said that nin exceeded their zenith. But what should the people say if 80% of the setlist was performed in another manner years before today with the frontman nearly falling from the stage because of all the anger and (teenage)angst. You can´t win on that direct comparison.
And I think Reznor was not in a good mood that evening. He smiled only once when he thought he would have messed up a singing part during “Home” what wasn´t recognized by most of the people anyway. Perhaps the band was a bit irritated as well because the crowd was not too agile this evening, perhaps due to the lack of space and except of the party crowd in the middle who did the best thing you could do at the show: Having fun with your friends to music which was very important to you a few years ago.
. Does anyone know if Trent is juicing - he looked 20 lbs heavier than on the last tour.
- awsome voice ....
hi, many thanx:-)i promised not to much. enjoy all and the people who will have it very soon too. again, comments, reviews are weclome everytime......what was your favourite song on the recording/show?
it's kind to see that the vienna gig has more online stuff than berlin 
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