There are definitely some sequenced elements when they play live, loops either triggered by MIDI keyboard or by the drummer hitting a pad that triggers a loop. Vocals, guitars, bass, and other drums are live, and some synth parts. That Downward Spiral era version of NIN was GOAT: Trent, Danny Lohner from Skrew , Robin Finck, and then both Jim Wooley (RIP) on synths and Chris Vrenna on drums were poached from my favorite (and criminally fucking underrated) “industrial” band, Die Warzau. That live band was juggernaut.
Seeing NIN in a club was crazy! Most of us in Phoenix didn’t hear of NIN until around the first Lollapalooza tour—the very first show of which was in Phoenix. I wasn’t there, but the show was outside in the summer, and NIN’a gear literally melted and malfunctioned in the second song and they had to end the set. People were pissed. So when they finally returned to AZ, people were hyped AF to see it, and NIN had gotten pretty big by then.
It was a warmup show for the tour, and announced day of show. It was at the Roxy in Phoenix, which has a
crazy fucking story for why it doesn’t exist anymore.
It was St Patrick’s Day 1994, so people were pretty tossed. My friend and I were 15, we had an older friend drop us off at the club without tickets, and we looked for scalpers, found some, and bought tix to get in.
We were packed into this club like fucking sardines, and Phoenix is HOT, even in March.
And here’s the kicker: there’s no opening band, and while the showtime is advertised as 8:00 PM, we found out later that Trent thought it was supposed to be 11:00 PM
So we’re packed in there, waiting, for
hours. Like 3 1/2 hours. And after a time, the mood in the club got real ugly. People were fucking pissed.
I literally remember thinking, “I think I am about to get caught in a riot.”
If someone had said or done the wrong thing, that whole club would’ve erupted.
When NIN finally hit the stage the crowd went nuts, and that mosh pit was roughhhhh. I remember the synth parts being really low in the mix that night, so every song sounded very guitar-driven and heavy.
I was hooked after that. Saw them 2 more times that year because they were so great live.