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After a tough morning at the Phantom Gourmet Phest, I decided to follow that up with Nine Inch Nails in Manchester. How could I miss their only NH appearance? This would be my first time seeing Trent and Co. Touring behind their latest releases The Slip and Ghosts I-IV, there was plenty of new material to crush through and some classics to share.

This incarnation of Nine Inch Nails included: Robin Finck on guitar, Alessandro Cortini on keyboards, Josh Freese on drums and Justin Meldal-Johnsen on bass. I’ve seen Justin play bass for Beck in 2005.

Hitting the stage at 8:45, the band came on as “999,999” ended and picked up with “1,000,000”, “Letting You”, and “Discipline”, the opening tracks off The Slip. Moving to “March of the Pigs” from The Downward Spiral, this was followed by tracks from Year Zero and The Fragile. Of course, we heard “Closer” in there, too.

When I wasn’t being thrown around, the light show was one of the most incredible spectacles I’d ever witnessed. I really can’t explain it, but I’ll try: there were three half-oval shaped light walls that were either above, in front or behind the band. Often the lights corresponded with beats even when Freese used them to create a giant drum machine.

After a four song interlude from instrumental album Ghosts I-IV and a sweet version of “Piggy” we heard “Survivalism”, “Pinion”, “Only”, “Terrible Lie” and plenty of others. “Head Like a Hole” closed the set. When they came back for an encore Trent thanked the crowd. “Echoplex”, “God Given”, “Hurt” and “In This Twilight” capped the whole show, an incredible night of music and lights.

Opener Health from Los Angeles was living proof that I wouldn’t need real musical ability to be famous and go on tour.