You'll have to arrive quite early at Berlin's Zitadelle if you want a good spot, because it gets rather crowded there when you jam in some 3.000 people in the limited space available at the old renaissance fortress. After having been waiting for a few hours while the courtyard slowly filled with black t-shirts, we had to suffer 30 minutes of the worst retarded and pointless one-man techno crap I have ever had the pain of listening to. If you ever hear the name "Vatican Shadow", then run away as fast as you can. You will thank me for it later!
At precisely 21:00 Nine Inch Nails entered the stage and kicked off an energetic gig. NIN live are Trent, Atticus Ross, Finck, Cortini, and the human drum machine Ilan Rubin. The latter is always a joy to witness live, his drumming skills helps a lot to transform the electronic sound into a more organic live sound.
The show certainly had great sound for an outdoor live gig, but it began with the volume set a bit too low. It took a few songs before they turned up the volume a bit, so it got that right industrial punch. Planes from the nearby airport take off above your head every few minutes and the Germans like to talk, so the louder the music is, the better. The stage was plastered with spotlights and strobes, but the show began too early or the sun didn't fuck off soon enough (something Trent mentioned during a song), and so the light show only came into full effect during the last part of the show.
With an effective playing time of only 1 hour 20 minutes for this NIN show, a total of 3 songs from new EP/mini-album "Bad Witch" [2018] and 2 songs from "Add Violence" [2017] was at least one too many. Particularly when an old warhorse like "Head Like a Hole" still holds a place in the setlist, and let's face it, it does sound kinda dated.
We did get some brilliant stuff too. The cover of Bowie's "I'm Afraid of Americans" was a blast (Nine Inch Nails toured with Bowie in 1995 and Trent did remixes of this Bowie tune) and we also got a great version of Joy Division's "Digital". My personal favorite was - as it always is, "Gave Up" that is out-of-this-world kick ass aggressive and fantastic live. Every single time. "The Frail" is always a lovely keyboard piece, particularly if the near-by Germans could have kept their mouths shut, which they couldn't. "March of the Pigs", "Copy of A", "The Hand That Feeds" were all delivered like the kick ass tunes they are. Did Trent just call us pigs? How rude.
We had 2 songs to send us off home. "Even Deeper" introduced as one of Trent's own favorite songs and the obligatory "Hurt" that transformed the courtyard into a field of video-recording phone displays and the occasional lighters.
It was a fine gig, but I have seen even better NIN gigs. It's the minor things that separates them though. This one could have lasted a bit longer, the setlist could have been a bit better, and then sunlight just isn't the perfect setting for a NIN gig. Also please turn up the volume a little more next time. If people won't shut up then make them fucking deaf instead, you never heard people talking at Motörhead gigs.
Rating: 
Band: Nine Inch Nails
Venue: Zitadelle Spandau, Berlin, DE
Concert Date: 2018-07-02
Support Band: Vatican Shadow
Setlist:
Branches/Bones, Wish, Less Than, March of the Pigs, The Frail, The Lovers, Reptile [with Closer tease], Shit Mirror, Ahead of Ourselves, God Break Down the Door, Copy of A, Gave Up, I'm Afraid of Americans (David Bowie cover) , I Do Not Want This, Digital (Joy Division cover), The Hand That Feeds, Head Like a Hole.
Encore:
Even Deeper, Hurt.
Ticket Price (DKK): 570
Ticket Provider: Ticketmaster
Content Type: Concert Review
Language: 
Updated: 2018-07-03 19:46
Created: 2018-07-03 19:24
