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Nine Inch Nails Illuminates Inglewood
Story by Sheri Zampelli | Photos by Michael Zampelli
Nine Inch Nails filled the Forum in Inglewood on Saturday night as part of their "Lights In The Sky Over North America" tour. This crowd came for Nine Inch Nails, and in fact, about half of the concert-goers didn't even bother to show up until moments before NIN was about to begin their set. The hardcore fans showed their enthusiasm by arriving more than an hour before the doors even opened. They bought t-shirts, smoked cigarettes and text-messaged their friends while securing their spot on the floor so they could be as close as possible to the stage. Those who came early saw Deerhunter, a melodic, poppy-yet-powerful rock band with a low key, unpretentious presence.
Nine Inch Nail's set opened with the first four songs off their new release, The Slip. [Free tour mp3 sampler here.] The crowd of people on the floor who had been waiting over two hours for Nine Inch Nails to take the stage began to swarm around like bees crawling on a hive. Eventually, tiny mosh pits erupted and crowd surfing commenced. All the while, NIN members amplified the intensity eminating from the stage by sporadically throwing their musical equipment and beverages toward the audience.
As the show progressed, music journeyed from The Slip to classics like "March of the Pigs" and "Closer". Portions of the voyage took side-trips focusing on a range of musical styles including ambient, electronic, percussion and hard rock. Approximately a half-hour into the set, the gigantic light screens descended from the rafters like security gates at the entrance to a parking structure. Each of the three layers of screens carried a portion of the visual information, transfoming the entire stage into a massive 3-D light box.
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