Nine Inch Nails Comes to Town

Boston has been getting a bit spoiled with Nine Inch Nails lately. It was only last summer when Trent Reznor and his motley crew of industrial miscreants were in town on the first leg of the Peel It Back Tour. Before that, they came through to top the bill on the opening night of the 2022 edition of Boston Calling, then stuck around for an encore the following evening when headliner The Strokes had to pull out at the eleventh hour due to illness.

Still, when the second North American leg of Peel It Back was revealed in October, it was downright shocking to see the Garden on the docket once again (February 13). In fact, Boston is the only city visited in both rounds. And while no official reason was given, there was an overwhelming demand for tickets for the late August show, perhaps more than at any other stop.

Is the NIN fanbase really that strong here? And who makes it up? Old school fans of Pretty Hate Machine desperately seeking nostalgia in turbulent times? Tortured individuals who find comfort in the sprawling 1999 masterpiece The Fragile? A surplus of Gen Z wanting to know why all their current favorite artists hat tip Reznor? Who knows! At the end of the day, wherever the audience is coming from, they’re getting one of the most groundbreaking shows in recent memory.

Read the rest of this piece over at Vanyaland where I hype the gig for “This Show Is Tonight.”

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