Dissonance

In 1995, Nine Inch Nails co-headlined the Dissonance tour with David Bowie. The tour is part of the Self Destruct Touring Cycle. Although NIN were supposedly more popular than Bowie at the time, Reznor felt uncomfortable having his idol open for him. So NIN played after the opening band Prick and before Bowie.

After NIN played a re-worked instrumental version of "Eraser", Bowie's band gradually came onto the stage to play five songs with NIN. Reznor and Bowie sang duet throughout this dual mini-set, with Reznor leaving the stage at the end for Bowie's band to perform their own set. NIN and Bowie's individual set lengths ended up being roughly equal. The joint set ended with new version of "Hurt", performed mostly by Bowie's band and sang by Bowie and Reznor. A live recording of this version appears on Closure.

The concept was innovative for its time, and received low sales and mixed reviews. Generalizing here, the young crowd did not stay for Bowie's set despite the segue, and the old crowd did not get industrial. Nowadays, these shows are treasured by the bootleg community.

Line-Up

• Charlie Clouser: Keyboards, programming, additional drums, backing vocals
• Robin Finck: Guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
• Danny Lohner: Bass, guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
• Trent Reznor: Vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, saxophone
• Chris Vrenna: Drums

Stage Set-Up

The stage design for this tour was done by Closure documentarian Jonathan Rach.[1] The overall look was very clean and stripped-down, contrasted with the previous legs of the Self Destruct Touring Cycle. There was a simple drapery style cloth backdrop that could be raised and lowered, hanging clusters of PAR can lights that shone down directly on individual band members, and keyboards on futuristic-looking metal stands. There were two sets of drums, allowing Vrenna and Clouser to play at the same time, when needed. All members of NIN were dressed in dark clothing while Bowie and his band were usually dressed in light clothing. Background projections were used during the portion of the set where NIN and Bowie were performing together.

Typical setlist

1. "Terrible Lie"
2. "March Of The Pigs"
3. "The Becoming"
4. "Sanctified"
5. "Piggy" (Nothing Can Stop Me Now)
6. "Burn"
7. "Closer" or "Closer To God"
8. "Wish"
9. "Gave Up"
10. "Down In It"
11. "Eraser" (Instrumental version)
    Nine Inch Nails and David Bowie:
12. "Subterraneans"
13. "Scary Monsters"
14. "Reptile"
15. "Hallo Spaceboy"
16. "Hurt"

Scrapped concert film

A professionally produced concert film of both NIN and Bowie was planned by Bowie's label, Virgin Records. However, when EMI Group (Virgin's parent company) ran into financial troubles, the project was scrapped. The film's editor, David Williams, claimed that the production company was probably never paid by the label and the footage was lost forever.[2] Fortunately, Williams posted about 43 minutes of rough cut footage from the film to his Vimeo channel, featuring both NIN and Bowie. It was filmed at the Desert Sky Pavilion.

Dates

Date/Location	Venue
1995/09/11 Hartford, CT	Meadows Music Theatre (rehearsal, no audience)
1995/09/12 Hartford, CT	Meadows Music Theatre (rehearsal, small radio contest winner audience)
1995/09/13 Hartford, CT	Meadows Music Theatre (rehearsal, no audience)
1995/09/14 Hartford, CT	Meadows Music Theatre
1995/09/16 Mansfield, MA	Great Woods Arts Center
1995/09/17 Hershey, PA	Hershey Park Stadium
1995/09/20 Toronto, ON	Skydome
1995/09/22 Camden, NJ	Blockbuster Sony Music Center
1995/09/23 Burgettstown, PA	Coca-Cola Star Lake Amphitheatre
1995/09/27 East Rutherford, NJ	Brendan Byrne Arena
1995/09/28 East Rutherford, NJ	Brendan Byrne Arena
1995/09/30 Cleveland, OH	Blossom Music Center
1995/10/01 Tinley Park, IL	New World Music Theatre
1995/10/03 Detroit, MI	Palace of Auburn Hills
1995/10/04 Columbus, OH	Polaris Amphitheatre
1995/10/06 Washington, DC	Nissan Pavillion
1995/10/07 Raleigh, NC	Hardee's Walnut Creek Amphitheatre
1995/10/09 Atlanta, GA	Coca-Cola Lakewood Amphitheatre
1995/10/11 St. Louis, MO	Riverport Amphitheater
1995/10/13 Dallas, TX	Coca-Cola Starplex Amphitheatre
1995/10/14 Austin, TX	Southpark Meadows
1995/10/16 Denver, CO	McNichols Arena
1995/10/18 Phoenix, AZ	Desert Sky Pavillion
1995/10/19 Las Vegas, NV	Thomas & Mack Center
1995/10/21 Mountain View, CA	Shoreline Amphitheatre
1995/10/24 Tacoma, WA	Tacoma Dome
1995/10/25 Portland, OR	Rose Garden Arena
1995/10/28 Los Angeles, CA	Great Western Forum
1995/10/29 Los Angeles, CA	Great Western Forum