Nine Inch Nails, Forum, Copenhagen, May 13 2014 – report

During their current European leg of the world tour Nine Inch Nails stopped by in Copenhagen. A friend and me drove from Gothenburg to enjoy the reinvented band, and my personal hope of a great show after seeing the web broadcast from Lollapalooza last autumn was high. I was not disappointed, however the show was not as grand as the stateside version.

The venue was Forum, which has a capacity of around 10 000 people, but roughly half of the venue was sealed off with some huge black cloths. That did not deter from experience too much though.

Opening act, Cold Cave, was a pleasant surprise; dark, melancholic and still beautiful melodies in a darkwave style. Recommended.

The setlist for this NIN tour varies quite a lot from venue to venue. A friend of a friend told me that NIN had rehearsed more than 50 songs in total. The song selection is far from a best of mayhem, but rather aimed at the hardcore fans. The songs chosen spanned the entire NIN career. The show was impressive and the stage setup amazing. They used a mobile LED-wall and lots of rear lights to build modes and themes that were ever changing. The in-between talk was minimal but effective, like for instance: “March Pigs!” and “You guys are OK”.

The band seemed to be in a good mood, perhaps a bit disappointed that the venue wasn’t filled to capacity. But the people in attendance were very supportive and the sing-along factor high. All in all it was a great concert experience.

Setlist:

“Pinion” / “The Eater of Dreams”
“Copy of A”
“The Beginning of the End”
“Letting You”
“March of the Pigs”
“Something I Can Never Have”
“Reptile”
“Survivalism”
“Gave Up”
“Sanctified”
“The Warning”
“All Time Low”
“Came Back Haunted”
“Eraser”
“Wish”
“The Hand That Feeds”
“Head Like a Hole”

Encores:

“Closer”
“The Day The World Went Away”
“Hurt”