{"id":215660,"date":"2026-03-12T00:25:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T00:25:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/215660\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T00:25:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T00:25:11","slug":"nine-inch-nails-deliver-dark-delights-with-help-from-boys-noize-in-anaheim-daily-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/215660\/","title":{"rendered":"Nine Inch Nails deliver dark delights with help from Boys Noize in Anaheim \u2013 Daily News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A dozen days after Trent Reznor<\/a> set the rock \u2018n\u2019 roll grapevine abuzz with an offhand comment that Nine Inch Nails<\/a> might not tour again, he stayed silent on the subject at Honda Center in Anaheim on Tuesday, March 10.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the smart move, of course. Why throw gasoline on the bonfires at the rumor factory?<\/p>\n

But let\u2019s just take him seriously for a moment \u2013 and conveniently forget about other times in the past he\u2019s said similar things about the end of the road. If Nine Inch Nails<\/a> did hang it up, they\u2019d absolutely be going out on top.<\/p>\n

\"Trent<\/p>\n

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails performs on the Peel It Back Tour. The band, which played Honda Center in Anaheim on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, is seen here in a photograph from earlier this year. (Photo by Jenn Devereaux)\n<\/p>\n

\"Nine<\/p>\n

Nine Inch Nails performs on the Peel It Back Tour. The band, which played Honda Center in Anaheim on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, is seen here in a photograph from earlier this year. (Photo by Jenn Devereaux)\n<\/p>\n

\"Nine<\/p>\n

Nine Inch Nails performs on the Peel It Back Tour. The band, which played Honda Center in Anaheim on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, is seen here in a photograph from earlier this year. (Photo by Jenn Devereaux)\n<\/p>\n

\"Trent<\/p>\n

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails performs on the Peel It Back Tour. The band, which played Honda Center in Anaheim on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, is seen here in a photograph from earlier this year. (Photo by Jenn Devereaux)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 4<\/p>\n

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails performs on the Peel It Back Tour. The band, which played Honda Center in Anaheim on Tuesday, March 10, 2026, is seen here in a photograph from earlier this year. (Photo by Jenn Devereaux)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

The Peel It Back Tour, which opened in June 2025 and included two nights at the Kia Forum in Inglewood in September, was one of the most acclaimed live shows of last year. Reznor and Atticus Ross<\/a>, his longtime collaborator, created a show that incorporated not just a wide range of hits and album tracks, but did so with innovative staging and lighting design.<\/p>\n

Add to that the inclusion of Boys Noize, the German DJ-producer Alexander Ridha, as opening act and collaborator for one of four segments in the show, and Nine Inch Nails sounded as fresh and powerful as ever before.<\/p>\n

The first of four acts opened with Reznor alone on a remote stage at the center of the arena floor for a solo piano arrangement of \u201cRight Where It Belongs.\u201d With \u201cRuiner\u201d and \u201cPiggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now),\u201d the rest of the band appeared one by one.<\/p>\n

Bassist Stu Brookes, who joined the band in February, and Ross, whom Reznor made NIN\u2019s only other permanent member in 2017, arrived during \u201cRuiner.\u201d Guitarist Robin Finck, who\u2019s performed in the band for most of the past three decades, joined them for \u201cPiggy.\u201d<\/p>\n

And drummer Josh Freese, who returned to Nine Inch Nails last year after Foo Fighters dropped<\/a> him for NIN\u2019s previous drummer, Ilan Rubin, banged a percussion solo long enough for his bandmates to rush and join him on the main stage.<\/p>\n

There, with the video screens on either side of the stage turned on for the first time in the hour-and-40-minute show, Reznor led the band through a run of harder, more aggressive tracks from the band\u2019s catalog. \u201cWish\u201d roared behind Reznor\u2019s angsty, plaintive vocals. \u201cWish there was something real,\u201d he sang over and over in the choruses. \u201cWish there was something true.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMarch of the Pigs\u201d dialed the tempo even faster \u2013 it\u2019s reportedly the fastest song in Nine Inch Nails\u2019 discography \u2013 before stomping the brakes for a few bars of piano and a wistful question: \u201cNow doesn\u2019t it make you feel better?\u201d<\/p>\n

The visual design for the main stage presented Nine Inch Nails behind a wraparound transparent scrim, allowing fans to see the band through a kind of hazy filter but also to project lights and patterns onto it. The effect was as if the players were inside a cloud of ever-moving lights, shapes and colors.<\/p>\n

As the piano instrumental \u201cThe Frail\u201d flowed into the clamor and clang of \u201cReptile,\u201d the scrim and screens flashed with green strobe lights and wriggling patterns of white light. Krautrock synth squiggles and machine-like drum beats opened \u201cCopy of A\u201d for which multiple silhouettes of Reznor replicated his live stage moves on the screens that surrounded him and the band.<\/p>\n

The second half of the show opened with Reznor and Ross joined by Boys Noize on the remote stage for the equivalent of live remixes of Nine Inch Nails songs. \u201cVessel\u201d led into \u201cCloser,\u201d a fan favorite from NIN\u2019s 1994 breakthrough album \u201cThe Downward Spiral.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cParasite,\u201d a song by How To Destroy Angels, Reznor and Ross\u2019s side project, flowed into \u201cAs Alive as You Need Me to Be,\u201d a single from the Nine Inch Nails soundtrack to the 2025 movie \u201cTRON: Ares.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each of those sounded perfectly familiar, but extra: Boys Noize\u2019s manipulation of Ross and Rezner\u2019s keyboards and synths turned them into industrial EDM. When the band and the DJ team up for their set at Coachella in a month, it should draw a very large crowd.<\/p>\n

The final run of the show featured some of the best-loved hits in Nine Inch Nails\u2019 discography. \u201cMr. Self Destruct\u201d raced through its paces with the fans in the pit punching the air with its beats. \u201cLess Than\u201d did much the same, though now a soft-edged mosh pit moved amoeba-like on the floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Perfect Drug\u201d featured the rapid-fire rhythms of drums \u2013 Josh Freese<\/a> doing Josh Freese things \u2013 beneath Reznor\u2019s vocals, delivered in a classic rock star pose, both hands on the microphone on its stand, one leg forward, one leg back.<\/p>\n

The one true cover in the set arrived via \u201cI\u2019m Afraid of Americans,\u201d a song by David Bowie<\/a>, whom Reznor described in his introduction to the song as \u201cour greatest hero.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very proud of the show that we\u2019re doing right now,\u201d Reznor had said in Tulsa after noting that he wasn\u2019t sure the band would tour anymore. \u201cIt\u2019s a real privilege to be up here with you,\u201d he told the audience inside Honda Center on Tuesday, and left it at that.<\/p>\n

If you had to bet, of course, you\u2019d imagine Nine Inch Nails will tour again, maybe after its founder, now 60, recharges his creative batteries with a few more acclaimed movie soundtracks. [He and Ross have won Academy Awards for best original score for \u201cThe Social Network\u201d and \u201cSoul,\u201d the latter also created in collaboration with Jon Batiste.]\n<\/p>\n

You\u2019d not be afraid to make that bet, either, if you\u2019d watched the final run of three songs on Tuesday: \u201cThe Hand That Feeds\u201d roaring into \u201cHead Like a Hole\u201d slipping into \u201cHurt.\u201d Together they captured all that make Nine Inch Nails so beloved. The angst, the alienation, the sorrow, and, yes, the hopefulness that lies at the heart of many of these songs.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all there in \u201cHurt,\u201d a song that moves from self-loathing to regret to a wish that may or not come true. \u2018\u201dIf I could start again \/ A million miles away,\u201d Reznor sang in the final verse of that final song of the night. \u201cI would keep myself \/ I would find a way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A dozen days after Trent Reznor set the rock \u2018n\u2019 roll grapevine abuzz with an offhand comment that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,2644,6998,420],"class_list":["post-215660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-concerts","tag-music-concerts","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}