Review: Nine Inch Nails Bring the Light

SAN ANTONIO - More than 9,000 fans, a narrow demographic predominantly in their late 30s and early 40s, took in Trent Reznor's touring incarnation of Nine Inch Nails at AT&T Center on Tuesday.NIN has always done well here (Austin's Explosions in the Sky opened) so it was reasonable to expect a respectable showing for the pioneering industrial rock act, especially as it promotes a critically-acclaimed new album, "Hesitation Marks."But what those post-Nirvana era fans may not have expected was one of the most impressive light show presentations ever to grace an S.A. stage, magnificent in its dizzying 3-D effects, accomplished by the use of a mesh front curtain that dropped down at select times, as well as a back screen.Reznor and company, barely visible through thick fog effects and strobe lights, opened with "Copy of A," from the new album. Its electronic club beat was relentless.At this juncture, Reznor was content to fit low into the mix, singing in the shadows like Tool's Maynard James Keenan."Sanctified" continued the vibe of bringing the dance floor to the arena. The aging post-punk kids may not mosh anymore but the vast majority stood throughout the night and cheered loudly.NIN pushed its new music but also mixed in classics like "March of the Pigs," which (so many years down the line) can be seen as the template for much of the nu-metal and aggro-metal that's followed but rarely reached these creative heights.The music was, as it should be, brooding and extremely loud. "Piggy" still haunts with its lyrics, "Nothing's turning out the way I planned."Reznor generally hung on the microphone but also played electric guitar and electric piano with his five-piece outfit.The visual effects were spectacular with NIN looking as if it were playing inside a cage. At other times, the band looked trapped in a video game or nightmarish dream.The sheer LED beauty and blinding glare could have been a scene out of "Scarface" or a night at the Bonham Exchange or strip bar trance.What managed to emerge, through the visual and sonic chaos, were Reznor's humanity, the desperate pleas and angst that drives the old songs and the new one's remains an undeniable touchstone (though one must wonder what kind of jerk walks out during the show-closing "Hurt").Songs "Disappointed" and "Came Back Haunted," especially the latter, recalled David Bowie at his post-Ziggy Stardust zenith.Like Reznor's bulked up body, some of his signature songs have not so much become unrecognizable as they have been invigorated with a live reading. Such was the case with "Wish," "The Hand That Feeds" and "Head Like a Hole."But the persona remains the same. Reznor's appeal is messianic at times. Without it, he couldn't pull off the brilliant, if achingly slow, "All the Love in the World" and the other ominous encore numbers.All of it is the build-up to "Hurt," which was accompanied much of the time by the original music video images (it was the only time in the night that pure video images were introduced).It remains his tour de force. And only a fool walks out on