Nine Inch Nails ripped through amazing set at the Irvine Meadows (or as it is currently known as Verizon Wireless Amphitheater) on May 20, 2009. This is one of the last tours for them.  Nine Inch Nails have been playing extremely rare tracks and Trent Reznor stated on his site that this will be the last tour.  Whatever the case may be, this tour is one of the last of its kind.

Trent Reznor announced that he was planning on disappearing Nine Inch Nails after this tour.  He has been touring and recording for the last couple of years non stop from the album “With Teeth” to his last “The Slip”.   Having seen him every time he came around since the “With Teeth” album, I can say that this night was both nostalgic and unique at the same time.   He dubbed this tour “Wave Goodbye” with the dates 1989 – 2009 on the concert merchandise (i.e. posters, shirts, hoodies, etc..), yet another sign that he’s ending the band for awhile after this year.  Stripping his light show down and his band

Trent decided to play rare songs as a treat for fans on this tour.  You can check out how unpredictable his sets are by going here.  This helped build an aura of mysteriousness as to what he was going to play next, since no two shows had the same setlist.  And how fitting that the first song they played this evening, “Now I’m Nothing” is where the name of this tour draws  from.  An ultra rare song that was written around Lollapalooza ’91 era and not played live since then. It was never officially released (although it can be found on the torrent dvd version of The Closure), the song ends with the words  “wave goodbye”.  It was always followed by the song “Terrible Lie” and true to his history that’s exactly what he did (Note: the drum pattern is similar to “Terrible Lie” as well).

They played songs off of The Downward Spiral that are rarely performed live such as “Heresy”, “Reptile”, “The Becoming”, and “Mr. Self Destruct”.  “Heresy” a song about how religion is used to manipulate people was slightly altered live.  Ending with the words

“Will you die for this? Will you kill for this?”

“The Becoming” with it’s unique guitar riff sounded monstrous live and one that I have always wanted to hear live.  “Mr. Self Destruct” began with a drum pattern that would flash in sync with the lights.  It began slowly and built into this masterpiece.  Music like this and songs like Jane’s Addictions “Three Days” paint a picture and draw you in, rather than hand it to you in a plate like 99% of music these days.