Pitchfork

Photo by Kirstie Shanley

Imagine it: all the power and the glory and the fancy technology of Nine Inch Nails' epic live show for this year's "Lights in the Sky" tour, as filmed by James freakin' Cameron's production team and plastered across an IMAX movie screen near you-- in three riveting dimensions! Now hold onto those imaginings, because they're all you're gonna get.

In a post on the NIN website this week (permalink here), Trent Reznor broke the bad news that the 3D NIN tour document he had dreamed up for theatrical release and eventual DVD issue just wasn't meant to be. Reznor chalks it up to "two critical mistakes." As he writes, "One was to approach a certain record company that owns some of the song rights about producing/funding. The second was to allow said company to fuck around as usual for months before saying um... no." Golly, now which company might he be talking about?

Papa Angst goes on to declare his live thing "FOR SURE the best show of the year and any bullshit end-of-the-year poll you may read in the next few weeks that says otherwise simply has it wrong. Those of you who saw it know I'm right." Thankfully he calls this "a Kanye West moment" so we don't have to.

Nine Inch Nails have added a run of 2009 dates Down Under, and oh hey, here's an interesting thing: Quoth Trent, "The shows we have announced in 2009 and any more that may be announced will be a completely different approach with some different personnel and will likely be the last for the foreseeable future." Some folks might call that a "hiatus," so NIN fans, consider yourselves warned.

All upcoming dates and the full text of Trent's post reside below.

File this one under lost opportunities.

I'm very proud of the show we've put together for this tour and have been working hard the last few months to find a way to capture it. I had an amazing situation lined up that would have allowed me to film the show in 3D with James Cameron's team for a theatrical release as well as DVD / BluRay, etc. We had an extra date added to the tour that we were going to give away all the tickets for and have a filming party / thank you show.

I made two critical mistakes. One was to approach a certain record company that owns some of the song rights about producing / funding. The second was to allow said company to fuck around as usual for months before saying um... no. We then achieved the impossible by finding alternate production / funding but the timetable is too rushed to get it filmed comfortably with the remaining time left on the tour. This tour and a lot of the personnel involved finish at the end of this leg, so we can't push filming into Jan / Feb.

Deep breath...
This was an amazing tour and production - certainly the best thing I've ever been involved with and likely the final tour for NIN on this scale. Thank you to those who came out to see it and forgive me for having a Kanye West moment, but this was FOR SURE the best show of the year and any bullshit end-of-the-year poll you may read in the next few weeks that says otherwise simply has it wrong. Those of you who saw it know I'm right.

The shows we have announced in 2009 and any more that may be announced will be a completely different approach with some different personnel and will likely be the last for the foreseeable future.

NIN:

12-04 Kelowna, British Columbia - Prospera Place *
12-05 Victoria, British Columbia - Save on Foods Memorial Centre *
12-07 Portland, OR - Rose Garden Arena *
12-08 Nampa, ID - Idaho Center *
12-09 Missoula, MT - Adams Center *
12-12 Sacramento, CA - Arco Arena *
12-13 Las Vegas, NV - Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino *
02-17 Auckland, New Zealand - Vector Arena
02-21 Brisbane, Australia - Soundwave Festival
02-22 Sydney, Australia - Soundwave Festival
02-27 Melbourne, Australia - Soundwave Festival
02-28 Adelaide, Australia - Soundwave Festival
03-02 Perth, Australia - Soundwave Festival

* with the Bug