Trent Reznor was not afraid of the old school or new school when he took on a capacity Fillmore crowd May 4 for a second consecutive night.
The Nine Inch Nails frontman was fearless in his evolving adaptation of 15-year-old songs. He massaged the setlist with new songs that introduced the audience to “With Teeth,” released the previous day as the first NIN record in six years.
Looking surprisingly muscular and as angst-ridden as ever, Reznor remains a showman. The concert, which sold out in minutes and is the precursor to the “With Teeth” arena tour expected in Denver later this summer, was a fierce examination of Reznor’s career.
“Terrible Lie” was epic in its stripped-down presentation, and the band’s new back-up shouts added a fresh dynamic. Moving on to the frenetic drums and guitars of “Wish,” the song was more urgent than pained, with Reznor enunciating every syllable.
Tracks such as “March of the Pigs,” “Piggy” and the ’90s radio smash “Closer” lend themselves to the live medium, but that shouldn’t cement their inclusion in every NIN setlist. The power of each track is diluted with each play.
Still, the career-spanning Denver set was the ideal coming-out party for “With Teeth.” The single “The Hand That Feeds” is a traditional NIN rager circa 1989, and while true fans recognize its similarity to “Pretty Hate Machine,” they can also see – and hear – that the song has teeth of its own
– Ricardo Baca
The Shins
In what is becoming the hallmark of a heathy summer concert season, this Albuquerque indie-rock band turned mainstream emo-pop figurehead sold out its Tuesday performance at the Fillmore Auditorium shortly before the start of the show.
Endearingly stunned by the mass turnout, Shins frontman James Mercer and keyboardist Marty Crandall commented several times on the size of the crowd before launching into a set heavy with tracks from 2003’s “Chutes Too Narrow” and 2001’s “Oh, Inverted World.” The songs featuring Crandall’s uptempo keyboard work, a la Stereolab, had undeniable catchiness and kept the crowd popping. But it was “New Slang” that really gave the place a date-night feel, with couples swaying in unison and mouthing the lyrics to one of the band’s tracks in the film “Garden State.”
After nearly a decade in music, The Shins deserve whatever success they can get. But their Denver show revealed redundancy in the band’s characteristically gentle songwriting, something we hope they will break away from now that they enjoy mainstream success.
The real bonus was New Zealand opener The Brunettes, an indie-pop outfit that won over a crowd largely unfamiliar with its music. Wearing Stepford Wives-type cutout masks and producing peppy, disco rock rounded out by a bombastic horn section, The Brunettes have a sound that James Mercer said he “fell in love with” during a recent tour stop in Auckland.
– Elana Ashanti Jefferson
