Nine Inch Nails // Live @ London O2 // 18.06.2025

After a three year hiatus, Trent Reznor has finally brought back Nine Inch Nails as a live entity for the Peel It Back tour. Kicking off in Dublin, Ireland on the 15th June, this was the third concert of a significant run which rolls through Europe over the next few weeks, before hitting the US later in the summer.

Joining Trent on the NIN stage are his studio partner Atticus Ross, longtime guitarist Robin Finck, drummer Ilan Rubin, and multi-instrumentalist / bassist Alessandro Cortini. German EDM Producer Boys Noize kicked the show off with a slow yet pounding Techno DJ set, which provided the perfect backdrop for the room as it began to swell. A fitting electronic industrial soundscape, to whet the appetite for what was to come.

And the atmosphere in the vast room of the O2 was poised on a knife edge as Boys Noize set seamlessly cut to Trent, as he sat isolated with a keyboard on a small circular stage in the middle of the crowd. He proceeded to play a rendition of ‘Right Where It Belongs’ from With Teeth, bleeding his performance into a stripped back version of ‘Ruiner,’ before being joined on stage by his band to deliver the remixed version of ‘Piggy’ which appeared on Further Down The Spiral.

NIN then transported over to the main stage and delivered a succession of driving and distorted cuts from their vast back catalogue; including ‘Wish’ & ‘Gave Up’ from Broken, ‘March of the Pigs’ & ‘Reptile’ from The Downward Spiral, and ‘Copy of A’ from Hesitation Marks. Trent then returned to the centre stage and was joined by Boys Noize for an electronic based mid-set run through of ‘The Warning’ (Year Zero), ‘Came Back Haunted’ (Hesitation Marks’, and ‘Only’ (With Teeth).

It’s clear that Reznor has reinvented the NIN live experience for the Peel It Back tour. A greatest hits run through which leans heavily on material from their seminal The Downward Spiral record (more to come on that) – with a real modern twist of Electronica provided by his collaboration with Boys Noize. The visual aspect of the concert was also of the very highest quality – as we’ve come to expect from NIN over the years – with the light show and projected visuals really quite breathtaking throughout.

The band returned to the main stage for the final act of the show, and this is where they really left an impression on the crowd, who could likely have stayed all night to immerse themselves in the back catalogue of one of the greatest live bands of the last 35 years. From the aggressive ‘Mr. Self Destruct,’ through ‘Heresy’ and the pulsating anthem of ‘Closer’ – all from The Downward Spiral – this was Reznor and NIN sounding as great as they did when they performed these songs for the first time in the mid nineties.

The show played out – prematurely for all in attendance – with a cover of David Bowie’s ‘I’m Afraid of Americans,’ before NIN unleashed ‘The Perfect Drug’ followed by their original hit; ‘Head Like A Hole’ from the 1989 debut Pretty Hate Machine. The show then ended with the ever emotional ‘Hurt’ – the only way for Reznor and co to round off a highly memorable night. NIN brought an energy of chaos to a live performance that will live long in the memory for those in attendance, yes there were one or two technical issues they needed to overcome at times, but this in no way detracted one bit from their epic performance.

The Nine Inch Nails catalogue is a vast one, and with such a Downward Spiral heavy set, it was perhaps songs their 1999 follow-up The Fragile which were conspicuous by their absence. But this tour seems to be in the main, a celebration of the one classic album which has just passed its 30 year anniversary – the album considered by many to be Reznor’s one true masterpiece. They may mix things up of course as the Peel It Back shows progress, but for now, and for the thousands in attendance on a sweltering late spring night in London – this was pretty damn close to perfection! KZ

Words // Videos // Photos by Abstrakt_Soul

Re:Visiting : Nine Inch Nails – The Downward Spiral (1994)