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I find that I am still trying to wrap my head around last night’s Nine Inch Nails show at Webster Hall here in NYC, NY where the band played the entirety of the masterpiece album The Downward Spiral LIVE for the first and only time. Of the 20+ NIN shows I’ve seen since 1994, I gotta say that last night’s has to be the best … if for sheer content alone. Little did I know when I was going inside the venue last night that I would be among the lucky few NIN fans to bear witness to a truly legendary concert experience:

I realize that this may sound like extreme hyperbolic nonsense, especially to non-NIN fans, but I can assure you, the epic nature of last night’s show will truly be remembered for all time by Nine Inch Nails fans the world over. Whether you were there last night or just heard about it online, it’s all any NIN fan can talk about today (and prolly will talk about for many years to come). After the jump, check out a few of the photos that I snapped last night along with the full setlist (yes, they played a bunch of amazing songs after they completed TDS: Live) and find out where you can watch video of some of the songs performed last night …

Again, while I had heard talk that some of the setlists and shows on this FINAL leg of the Wave Goodbye Tour would be pretty surprising and amazing, I didn’t want to go in with any expectations … I wanted to just have the show unfold before me and just take it all in, come what may. But as the first sounds of Mr. Self Destruct, the lead song on The Downward Spiral, began playing immediately as the house lights went black, I KNEW that we would be hearing the whole album played live. Here are a few of my photos and the full setlist (along with links to video of some of the songs performed):

The Downward Spiral

1,000,000
Terrible Lie (Video)
Metal (Video) (Gary Numan)
Lights in the Sky (Video)
Burn (Video)
Gave Up
Suck
Physical (You’re So) (Video) (Adam and the Ants)
The Hand that Feeds (Video)
Head Like a Hole (Video)

There was no encore because one was not planned … the setlist only showed that The Big Comedown should’ve been played in the set but HLAH was meant to be the last song performed last night. A Warm Place has NEVER been performed live in concert before and Trent Reznor even whipped out a saxophone mouthpiece to play the intro for Eraser (some of you may know that he, like me, played sax in high school marching band). Interestingly enough, you can click HERE to see the setlist for the Nine Inch Nails show that was played at Webster Hall on May 13, 1994 just weeks after The Downward Spiral was originally released. There is no doubt, this show was played exclusively for the fans … tickets for these last concerts were made available (as much as possible) to true fans of the band … NIN did this for us. I mentioned in my earlier post HERE that Trent Reznor posted a message to fans on the official Twitter profile after last night’s show last night and today, NIN bassist Justin Meldal-Johnsen posted a message to fans on the official NIN messageboard, he writes:

I have to chime in, can’t resist. What a goddamn GIFT it was to be able to play that show. I could die now and be quite content, if only because as a collective audience you people were so spectacular and kick-ass. These past two nights have been really heavy. I’m already sentimental about them, but of course I’m an old softie. To those who were waiting after the show, sorry that I had to split so quickly. I’ll try to make it up to you, for those of you that might be joining us at one of the Terminal 5 gigs. Today = recover & rest.

Love to you,
JMJ

I cannot stress enough how important it is for all NIN fans who DO NOT HAVE TICKETS for any of the upcoming shows to follow NIN on Twitter. It stands to reason that last minute tickets will be made available for the rest of the shows, just like they were made available for the first two shows, and the only way to find out about that ticket availability IMMEDIATELY is on Twitter. No lie, I keep flashing back to memories of last night … what an honor it was to be in attendance.

OY, I’ll be resting up today but I do have tix to see the musical Next to Normal on Broadway tonight … then 2 more NIN shows Tuesday and Wednesday before I fly back home to LA. I am on a high today. Woot! doesn’t even adequately express what I’m feeling.