Hindsight Concert Review #1: How To Destroy Angels (Chicago, 2013)

I've been a fan of Nine Inch Nails since 1994, but I have to admit I have sadly missed a few too many of their concerts, as well as this side-project How To Destroy Angels. H.T.D.A. features the two main members of Nine Inch Nails: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, only Reznor's wife, Mariqueen Maandig is on lead vocals. They are joined by Rob Sheridan, who started with various technical and visual assistance for Nine Inch Nails in 1999, at the age of 19. I just finished watching their performance from 2013, at The Vic Theater, in Chicago, a place I would have been able to walk to at that time. I can't say why I missed it. I vaguely remember maybe having to work, or, to be honest, not being terribly fond of the album they were supporting, Welcome Oblivion.

Maybe my expectations were too high, as I had found myself ecstatic about their self-titled debut EP. At the time, I was enveloped in older music and experimental/noise. I don't generally attend many large-scale concerts, but I would often make an exception for Nine Inch Nails, and a few others. I'd been running a weekly freeform radio show for almost seven years at that point, and I'd been deeply engrossed in a sort of imaginary value system based on coveting obscure, "difficult" music.

I think a lot of intelligent people end up getting low levels of dopamine, and find themselves skeptical of music that is designed around the concept of communicating emotions. At that time, I found a lot of music to be redundant, based on the tradition of communicating love and loss through a lens of something that people could dance or headbang to. Even the older music I'd listen to, I wouldn't listen to the lyrics, and would only focus on the residual quality of the production, as it relates to the overall harmony. Nine Inch Nails had been sort of grandfathered in, past my critical mind, and escorted deep into the corridors of my subconscious.

The funny thing about intelligent people is that they don't always listen to intelligent music. They don't always need lyrics about complex mathematics, wild time-signatures, or overly verbose philosophy. They may have an IQ of 175, but still search the house for their hairbrush only to realize it was in their pocket the whole time. With lyrics by Reznor or Maandig, one gets the feeling that they are a mixture of improvisations, setting melodies into lyrics later, not unlike Talking Heads. Or it is entirely possible that some complex concepts are being dissolved into a simplified lyrical delivery. It could be that the intelligence within a song is developed by the texture of it, rather than the message.

My critical mind could pick apart various things about Reznor's projects. The verses to the songs tend to be less melodic, and it sometimes seems like we are struggling with the artist to get to the chorus. Some of the ambient work, while I'm glad that is exists, is often too minimal for my tastes. I could go on and on. Ultimately, this all goes out the window when considering how immense a Nine Inch Nails concert (or a video of one by How To Destroy Angels) plays out. I need to remind myself of this every time, if the pandemic ever ends.

This evening, I watched a full concert video for the first time in many years. I didn't skip through any of it, and I was immersed. I could hear complexity in the sound design that I'd never heard before, and what I'd previously considered too mid-tempo became a part of a larger whole. That whole experience manifests as a sort of synthesis-- The end result is a triumphant tech-noir-glamour machine, awakening old rock n' roll gods, but also anointing a crowd with the benevolent strength of pure creative energy. The music was almost forcibly presented in the same trance-like manner that some of the best psychedelic music has. Cloaked within a mixture of patterned, transparent lining, How To Destroy Angels had such an elaborate light show that they themselves became an embodiment of light.

Although I am a bit peeved that I snoozed on a great concert that happened close to where I lived, featuring one of my favorite artists (and a friendly acquaintance who goes by Hazekiah was there filming part of it!), I am glad that almost 8 years on, I am experiencing this period of creativity with new eyes and ears, and with a nuanced, visceral appreciation that I didn't have before.