To fully appreciate Friday night’s Nine Inch Nails show at the Air Canada Centre is to understand the band’s recent tumultuousness and to recognize how much effort when into the cheekily titled Tension 2013 tour.
The tour title is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the inner turmoil that has existed within NIN since 2009, when Trent Reznor announced that the band would be going on a touring hiatus. NIN returned to live shows in early 2013, only to see recent band additions Eric Avery (Jane’s Addiction) and Adrian Belew (King Crimson) drop out shortly after the launch of the tour. The revamped lineup, which includes Alessandro Cortini, Josh Eustis, Robin Finck, Lisa Fischer, Sharlotte Gibson, Pino Palladino and Ilan Rubin, only began touring recently.
All of this made Friday night’s show seem more uncertain, exciting and fresh than you’d typically see of a band with 25 years experience under its belt. Credit the ensemble group, then, because they could have been a disastrous assemblage of ill-fitting pieces, but instead they united with surprising chemistry.
Reznor was Reznor, anchoring the group with his raw, powerful vocals and commanding stage presence. But it was the supporting parts that lent a refreshing buzz to the proceedings, infusing the works of NIN with new sound and an overall different feel from their pre-hiatus shows in Toronto (it had been five years since NIN’s last ACC performance).
Most eye-opening among the new additions were backup vocalists Fischer and Gibson, who added a feminine component to what had previously been a Y chromosome-oriented act. Their contributions were particularly evident during “Copy of A,” “Into the Void” and “In This Twilight.”
The new bassist, Palladino, who has amassed an impressive touring resumé alongside acts like The Who (he famously replaced John Entwistle), Adele and John Mayer, bolstered NIN with his versatile musical skills, adapting quickly to the band’s trademark changes in tone and rhythm. Palladino navigated seamlessly through the rough terrain of a deliberately jumpy set list, offering a heavy, violent sound to angry tracks like “March of the Pigs” and “Terrible Lies,” and then more of an ethereal, soothing sound to the creepy “Came Back Haunted.” Beyond the stewardship of an in-control Reznor, it was the veteran bassist who served as the glue that kept the eight-piece band in sync.
The inner machinations of NIN’s new lineup proved to be sufficiently fascinating as to steal the spotlight away from an otherwise mesmerizing stage show, which was a smoky, shimmering and futuristic spectacle. During “Disappointed,” 3D laser patterns cloaked the stage for an eye-popping visual effect that made all eight band members nearly invisible. “Hand That Feeds” went deeper, establishing an illusionary effect that made it impossible to distinguish the band members from their light reflections.
All in all, a refreshed Reznor — backed by some more-than-able musical talent — was quite a sight to behold.