The performance was a visual spectacle
Nine Inch Nails and Soundgarden are currently trekking across North America on their 2014 tour. While on paper the bands may seem like an odd pairing on paper, they have proven to be quite a dynamic duo. Each artist is a tour de force on stage in their own way, and on this run they are bring together rock fans from different sectors of the genre for one epic melting pot of a show.
Back in January, their latest album Hesitation Marks received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Alternative Music Album. Nine Inch Nails also performed the closing number at the awards ceremony alongside Queens of The Stone Age, Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, and Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters. Grohl directed the music video for the Soundgarden single, “By Crooked Steps”, off their 2012 album, King Animal. Last week, Soundgarden performed at the inaugural iTunes Music Festival at SXSW in Austin, TX. The band performed their seminal album Superunknown in full for the first time ever.
Nine Inch Nails are undoubtedly one of the greatest artists of all time. Pioneers of the industrial genre, they incorporated elements of rock, metal, electronica, and alternative rock to forge a style all their own. They shook the music world to it’s core in 1989 with their debut album, Pretty Hate Machine. The record was truly groundbreaking, and has since gone on to be certified multi-platinum. In 1994, NIИ set the bar once again with their sophomore effort, The Downward Spiral, which debuted at #2 on the Billboard Top 200. The disc went on to sell over 5 million copies, and be certified quadruple-platinum. It spawned NIИ’s finest moment, the single Closer.
The band’s third album was a monster double disc outing titled The Fragile, released in 1999. The album saw NIИ expanding their trademark sound, and once again the band debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top 200. From 2005-2008, the band released four more studio LP’s. Throughout their entire career, Nine Inch Nails were famous for their EPs, single releases, and remix albums. They have released approximately two-dozen since their inception. Every NIИ record is categorized with the word “Halo” followed by a number. Last summer, the band headlined the Budweiser Made In America Festival in Philadelphia, PA.
Soundgarden pioneered an untra-heavy grunge rock sound, incorporating elements of heavy metal and alternative music. The band exploded unto the mainstream with the release of their third album,1991′s Badmotorfinger. The follow-up, 1994′s Superunknown, catapulted the band to legendary status. Debuting at #1 on the Billboard Top 200, the album has since been certified 5x platinum by the RIAA. The record earned the band two Grammy Awards in 1995, and today it still serves as a blueprint for heavy alternative rock music. Soundgarden disbanded in 1997 following the release of their 1996 effort, Down On The Upside. In 2010, the band reunited and issued their first greatest hits collection, Telephantasm. The album featured the previously unreleased single, “Black Rain.”
In March 2011, the band released the live album, Live on I-5. The summer of 2011 saw the band embark on a sold-out summer tour, culminating with a headlining appearance at Voodoo Experience in New Orleans, LA. This past spring, Soundgarden contributed a new single, “Live To Rise,” to the soundtrack of the blockbuster film The Avengers. This past summer, the band were a featured act at England’s epic Download Festival alongside Black Sabbath, Metallica, The Prodigy, Megadeth, and Biffy Clyro. The band’s first studio LP in 16 years, King Animal, came out on November 13, 2012. The album debuted at #5 on the Billboard Top 200, and sold over 83,000 copies in it’s first week of sales.