Nine Inch Nails - Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff - May 21 2014 (Live Review)

Judging by the number of ‘Wave Goodbye’ tour shirts dotted among the crowd, there are plenty here who had, on a superficial level at least, consigned Nine Inch Nails to their past.

Trent Reznor’s re-emergence last year, with ‘Hesitation Marks’, was a welcome one, if not a terribly surprising one. It was, after all, hard to imagine him entirely stepping away from the band that defined him.

But, the Nine Inch Nails that waved goodbye five years ago is a different beast to the one that emerges in darkness tonight for Copy Of A. In 2009, the band had become a nebulous thing, with experimental releases mixed with the early rumblings of How To Destroy Angels and Reznor’s successful, eventually Oscar-winning, career as a film composer.

Here, flanked by a stripped back band - long-time collaborator Robin Finck, Alessandro Cortini and Ilan Rubin - Reznor cuts an intense, focused figure. During the opening song he bends from the waist, eye-balling the front row, before dragging his mic stand towards him as if he means to prevent its escape.

He exudes a physicality that sets him apart from the wraith-like ‘Downward Spiral’ days and is backed up throughout by Rubin, a drummer who plays as if he intends to hurt someone. Reznor speaks only to briefly thank the crowd and ask for a moment to test a synth pad, which has "blown up" due to the sweat flying around the stage.

From beginning to end, each aspect of the show is tied together with machine-like precision. There is no room for empty spectacle, with the intricate, ever-changing lighting rigs pulsing in time with each burst of noise, filtering green for a thunderous Reptile or a deep blue during the sparse, haunting Something I Can Never Have.

Later, a stage-spanning video screen casts the band in silhouette, with Closer set to images of molten gold that flatline as its closing piano lick is left hanging. A flash of white during Me, I’m Not, meanwhile, allows Reznor’s black outline to pull out a couple of well-placed dance moves.

It’s far from the most outlandish show Nine Inch Nails have laid on, but it’s remarkably fit for purpose in the context of this setlist, which plays with shoving the band’s harsh edges up against moments of solemn beauty.

Survivalism, March Of The Pigs, Wish, Gave Up and a monumental The Great Destroyer are all dispatched with brutal efficiency, while a reworked Sanctified and desolate Beside You In Time are eerily effective. It’s the loud/quiet dynamic in longhand. Nine Inch Nails are back, and it seems that they’re not messing around.

Nine Inch Nails Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:

Fri May 23 2014 - LONDON O2 Arena
Sat May 24 2014 - NOTTINGHAM Capital FM Arena
Sun May 25 2014 - MANCHESTER Phones 4u Arena

Click here to compare & buy Nine Inch Nails Tickets at Stereoboard.com.

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