July 31st 1990, Nine Inch Nails at RPM

There's a meme I've seen recently that speaks to the idea of how important people who share music are, and that really resonates with me. I've long felt that musical discovery can be a shared journey and while there's no doubt that it can sometimes be a solitary path, there's a lot to be said for having a guide to help you along your way.

I've been lucky enough to have a few guides over the years, a few people who have shared music with me and introduced me to new sounds, and I'm grateful to all of them. My friend Dave from high school is probably one of the most significant of those people, somebody who played a major role in shaping my tastes in many ways that remain to this day. We went to the same suburban high school in the eighties, and while our tastes weren't identical there were enough parallels between them that formed a strong basis for a good friendship, and within that friendship there's no question in my mind that Dave was better able to find new artists than I was. He was much more in tune with the next thing, much more curious about a new sound or a new band, and was often saying things like "Have you heard this?" and "Check this out...". I was the kind of person who would find a band and would dive in and immerse myself, wanting to amass a collection and revel in deep album cuts and obscure B-sides. Dave was wide spread in his interests and his appreciation and he was always willing to share his discoveries with me. And like the meme says, people who share music are important.

Over the years, Dave and I made countless visits to the Yonge Street Record Run from Bloor to Queen, visiting Records on Wheels, the Record Peddler, Starsound, Sam's, and multiple Cheapies, all in search of new extended versions or rare imports, and after we were done Dave would make tapes of his finds for me so I could hear them too and share in his own discovery. It was pretty awesome, and I'll always be grateful to him for all of the music that he introduced me to. As we got older, Dave and I also started going to concerts together, and he was there with me the first time I saw Depeche Mode at Kingswood, and at my first Cure show at the Grandstand, and a long list of other great shows too. But it was seeing Nine Inch Nails at RPM that stands out in my mind as the quintessential Dave music experience. There was a tape, and an introduction, and a show, and in my mind it really captured so much of what our friendship was based in.

Along with making tapes for me to hear, Dave also made tapes he could listen to in the car, and one of those tapes had "Pretty Hate Machine" by Nine Inch Nails on it. I already knew Down In It and Head Like a Hole from a million plays on Chris Sheppard's Club 102, but I hadn't heard the rest of the album until Dave played it for me one night while we were driving somewhere.

And it was pretty fucking mind blowing. 

"Pretty Hate Machine" stands as one of the most influential and significant albums of the nineties, an incredible synthesis of Industrial, Goth, Pop, Metal and more. It brought together outsider sounds and made them accessible and appealing, giving a voice to the lonely and alienated and isolated and broken, serving as an initial blueprint for Trent Reznor's work over the next thirty years. There's no question that in the years to come he would scale even greater artistic heights, that he would create monumental and epic albums that would define his talent more succinctly, but it all starts with "Pretty Hate Machine", that's the foundation for everything that he would do moving forward, the basis for everything else he's done ever since.

It's an incredible album, and in that first listen in Dave's car I knew that it was something special. I had no idea what Reznor would become or where his music would take us in the years to come, I had no idea what influence this album would have, but in that moment I knew that it was an amazing collection of songs and that was enough for me. More than enough.

Shortly after that first listen a show was announced for Toronto, a club gig at RPM, and when Dave suggested that we should go I readily agreed and picked up three tickets for Dave and my friend Brooke and I. Brooke is another person who had a big influence on my musical tastes, and if my memory serves me correctly this was the first show that she and I ever went to. In the years to come we'd see dozens of shows together, and she'll no doubt pop up in other entries as this blog continues...

To place it in people's minds, RPM was part of the same entertainment complex down by the Lake that would eventually become The Guverment. RPM is kind of a legendary club space in Toronto, known for thousands of shows and DJ nights over the years, and it held about 1500 people which was perfect for an act with buzz like Nine Inch Nails was at the time, but to be honest I don't really remember it being very crowded that night. I mean, there were a lot of people there, but I'm hard pressed to think that it was sold out. Maybe, but I don't think so. I remember moving easily through the crowd, easily shifting from the upper balcony for the opening act down to a spot in the middle of the floor when NIN came on. It may have been one of those shows that may not have been quite the event at the time that it is in retrospect.

Regardless of how many people were there, it was still a great concert. NIN's stage show was pretty simple at that point, it was early enough in the band's career that they didn't have the same video and visual effects that would define later tours, but there was a set of ropes hanging from the lighting apparatus down to the floor, and during the show Reznor and others would lean on the ropes, or wrap themselves up in them, or even sometimes swing out over the audience with them. It was a simple prop, but it was also quite effective, expanding the space on stage and giving the band something to interact with outside of themselves and the audience. I've never really seen a band use rope as effectively since then, and now that I think about it I'm kind of surprised because, y'know, it seems really obvious...

In addition to swinging on the ropes Reznor threw a lot of water or beer or whatever he was drinking at the audience, a series of cups that were sipped from once and then thrown out into the space with a pretty solid throwing arm. As noted we were about midway back from the stage, almost halfway to the bar, but we still got splashed a few times during the night. Definitely a solid throwing arm, and I'm sure there's an alternate reality out there in the Multiverse where Reznor went on to have a solid career in the Majors...

Since this was a tour for the first album the setist was focused primarily on the songs from "Pretty Hate Machine", along with Suck by Pigface, and a cover of Get Down Make Love by Queen. Terrible Lie was great that evening, and Something I Can Never Have was a moment of calm in the eye of a hurricane, a chance for both the band and the audience to catch their breath amid everything else that was happening. It was a really physical show, with Reznor and the band constantly moving, jumping, swinging, throwing, all of that, and I'm sure that a break was appreciated at the time.

The set closed with Down in It and Head Like a Hole, and they were the most manic of all the songs of the night, vicious guitar riffs and screaming vocals that exceeded everything else that came before them in the set. They were the hits at the time, right? People were waiting for them, looking forward to something epic, and knowing that the band fully delivered.

It was a really great night, a really amazing show by a band that were poised for great things, and I'm really glad that I had the opportunity to see NIN when they were just starting out. It was an excellent preview of greatness to come, and while I would never be able to guess the levels of artistry that Reznor and company would achieve in the future, it was still enough to tell me that they were worth keeping an eye on. Of course I probably wouldn't have had that opportunity if it hadn't been for Dave hearing them first and introducing me to them. Like I said at the beginning of this post, Dave always had a gift for picking out bands and sharing them with others, and of all the bands he suggested that I check out, I'll always be grateful for him sharing NIN with me so early on...