First off, I have been waiting many years to see this band live. Trent Reznor is one musician who I highly look up to and find extremely inspirational so again, finally seeing him and NIN live is live a dream come true. Now with this expectations set, they did not disappoint in the slightest; they were fucking amazing.
One thing that really stood out about this show was just how much raw emotion Trent brought to the music. There was just so much energy that was in their performance on stage. I had seen some live videos of the upcoming live release Nine Inch Nails: Tension 2013, and the energy in this performance was so much more than those videos. I in no way mean to knock those recordings, I plan on getting it when it's released, but just to put into perspective just how phenomenal the performance at the Barclays Center was.
Musically everything sounded fantastic, and venue wise compared to where I sat for seeing Atoms for Peace this sound quality was much better. To clarify, for that show I was off to the right in section 209 a few rows from the ceiling basically in front of a speaker, and for this concert I was closer to the center ad lower in section 213. So with this venue it matters where you are for how the overall sound quality will be.
The setlist for the show was as follows:
01. Copy of A | 02. 1,000,000 | 03. Terrible Lie | 04. March of the Pigs | 05. Piggy | 06. All Time Low | 07. Disappointed | 8. Came Back Haunted | 09. Find My Way | 10. The Frail | 11. The Wretched | 12. Satellite | 13. In Two | 14. Survivalism | 15. Running | 16. A Warm Place | 17. Somewhat Damaged | 18. Wish | 19. Burn | 20. The Hand That Feeds | 21. Head Like a Hole
Encore: 22. The Day the World Went Away | 23. Even Deeper | 24. While I'm Still Here | 25. Black Noise | 26. Hurt
Aside from the energy and the music aspect of the performance (both being amazing), the visuals were stunning. Utilizing somewhat of a screen in front of the band for certain lighting effects, as well as the background, it looked fantastic. Over two months later and I'm still giddy from getting to see them live, and just how amazing they where in every aspect of the show. If you can see them live, go immediately, it's something I'll never forget (and hope to experience again).
This album returns to the same feel of NIN as their older albums, but now approaching the music almost as through taking in all that life's brought them so far. It starts off with "The Eater of Dreams", which works as an intro that in a way reminds me of how "Pinion" leads into the EP Broken. The track listing that follows this introduction is; "Copy of A", "Came Back Haunted", "Find My Way", "All Time Low", "Disappointed", "Everything", "Satellite", "Various Methods of Escape", "Running", "I Would for You", "In Two", "While I'm Still Here", and "Black Noise."
The whole album is just really grooving out, and you can tell by the music that Trent is in a lot better place in his life than compared to previous albums. Now while musically that does not necessarily make some better that others, that's up to personal preferences, but it is an interesting observation to make when listening. What I'm really getting at with this is that Hesitation Marks is an enjoyable album that you can easily reply again and again, so with that I highly recommend giving it a listen.
Hesitation Marks was released in four different versions, each with their own unique cover artwork which was done by Russel Mills. The pieces used for the covers consisted of "Cargo In The Blood" for the deluxe CD version, "Time And Again" for the standard CD, "Turn And Burn" for the digital version, and "Other Murmurs" for the vinyl. You can see these, listed (clockwise) as shown below. You can see all four versions of the cover artork along with a description to read from Mills here.
Hesitation Marks does something very unique, and that is how there are two different masters of the album. The standard version which can be heard on all the physical copies and downloaded from iTunes or similar providers, and the audiophile mastered version that is solely from the official NIN site. There is an interesting photo set here on tumblr, which shows the audio spectrum of the "audiophile mastered" version of the album. Now at the moment I have not listened to the files for the audiophile mastered version, but I do hope to change that in the future so that I can fully experience the various aspects of this fantastic album.
Now if you would like to read another point of view regarding the album, I would recommend reading this excellent review done by one of my friends.
