by Jon Bauer
Nine Inch Nails closed out their Peel It Back Tour of Europe and America at Sacramento’s Golden 1 Center last night for a raucously loud, amazingly visual, multi-staged, spectacle.
This tour featured a uniquely immersive stage design built around three distinct performance areas. The opener, Boys Noize (Alexander Ridha), kicked things off with a one-hour DJ set from a small stage at the back of the venue. His set leaned heavily into remixed ’90s tracks – blending in Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, and other dark, European electronic influences – setting a moody, high-energy tone for the night.
At the center of the venue sat the “B-stage,” a compact cube that felt like something out of a mad scientist’s lab. It was outfitted with bright, downward-facing moving lights and surrounded by rows of fixtures that pulsed outward in waves, sending ripples of light through the crowd.
Meanwhile, the main stage was initially concealed behind multiple layers of sheer curtains – at least two deep – creating a sense of distance and mystery. The band performed behind these translucent scrims, which doubled as projection surfaces for intricate, mesmerizing visuals (see later in this review for examples). The effect was unlike anything I’d seen before, transforming the stage into a living canvas.
For the second half of the show, the curtains were removed entirely, revealing the band in full creating a more direct, intimate connection with the audience.
Act one featured Trent Reznor kicking off the show in the center of the arena (B-Stage) with a delicate and stripped down version of “Something I Can Never Have” – played on the keyboard solo. Then he was joined by long term (16 years) NIN sidekick Atticus Ross, drummer Josh Freese, bassist Stu Brooks, and guitarist Robin Finck to perform “Non-Entity.” They finished that set with an energetic version of “Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now)” with Trent moving around the small stage to address all parts of the surrounding audience.
Moving to the main stage, they performed 7 more songs (“Wish,” “March of the Pigs,” “The Frail,” “Reptile,” “Find My Way,” “Copy of A,” and “Gave Up.” For me the highlight was “Copy of A,” where the visuals were spectacular – they featured projections of Trent duplicated dozens of times around the stage – as he sung “I am just a copy of a copy of a copy” and “I am just a shadow of a shadow of a shadow”, the projected Trent’s, on delay, replicated his movements in multiple stages. It was beautiful and hypnotic.
The show then shifted back to the B-stage, where Boys Noize rejoined the band for a standout collaborative set. Together, they performed “She’s Gone Away,” “Closer,” “Parasite,” and “As Alive as You Need Me to Be,” each reimagined with fresh energy. “She’s Gone Away” featured a new “Vessel” intro, while the other tracks were transformed through dynamic remixes.
What made this segment especially unforgettable was the lighting. The overhead fixtures – mostly stark white during the first set—now glowed in deep purples and greens, washing over the crowd in fluid, shifting patterns that at times evoked the aurora borealis.
The final set moved back to the main stage, now curtain-less – where the band played 7 more songs, including “Mr. Self Destruct,” “Less Than,” “The Perfect Drug,” “Burn,” “The Hand That Feeds,” Head Like a Hole,” and concluded with “Hurt.”
Trent also took a moment to clear up some confusion surrounding earlier comments that had been interpreted as this being the band’s final tour. Addressing the crowd directly, he explained, “this is the last show of this tour, and we don’t have any shows booked, and we don’t have any plans to book any shows any time in the future, so far. That doesn’t mean we may not tour again – we MAY tour again.” He also added: “But to be truthful – we didn’t tour for a while before this tour because frankly I didn’t know if we could do it well, and if it still mattered, and if we had something to say.” Ultimately, he emphasized the immense effort that went into the production and calling it something they were “really fucking proud of.”
He also talked about their next steps – they are now going to work on new music, and if they feel inspired, maybe they will be back. The crowd’s response made it clear – there was a collective sense of relief and appreciation in hearing that the door wasn’t fully closed.
