1994/08/13 Saugerties, NY

Danny Lohner and Trent Reznor during "Happiness In Slavery." Reznor's keyboard eventually broke down, then he slammed the rest with his microphone stand.

On August 13th, 1994 Nine Inch Nails took part in Woodstock '94 at Winston Farm in Saugerties, NY as the final date of the Self Destruct Tour. Their performance is considered one of the best in the band's history, despite the band's opinion that it was one of their worst. They took the stage covered head-to-toe in mud. This single performance is widely accepted as the one that made the band famous.

The other acts that played the festival on the same day as NIN were Joe Cocker, Blind Melon, Cypress Hill, Rollins Band, Melissa Etheridge, Crosby, Stills, & Nash, Metallica, Aerosmith, Nenad Bach, The Cranberries, Zucchero, Youssou N'Dour, The Band, Primus, and Salt 'N Pepa.

Notes

Before "Burn" was performed, Trent Reznor said:

Oh, this is fucking weird… This is something new from us… This is from Natural Born Killers,
it's called "Burn."

After "Down In It" was performed, Reznor said:

You guys having a good time? When we said we'd do this fucking thing…
I was kinda worried that it would suck, but
I think it's turned out to be a pretty cool thing. (coughs) I've got mud in my fucking eyes.
Plus, I got the chance to say the word "fuck" on Pay-Per-View. FUCK!

Then, "Dead Souls" began, and Reznor said:

This is something we did for The Crow.

During the intro to "Suck", Reznor said:

I just wanted to say Thank you

Nine Inch Nails were considered to have the largest crowd density at the event, overshadowing many of the more mainstream bands of the time. In the interview after their performance, Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor claimed he thought his band's performance was "terrible". Reznor admitted that while he disliked playing at such a large show, it was done for the money: "To be quite frank, it's basically to offset the cost of the tour we're doing right now."

The story behind the band being covered in mud was consistently presented by the band in interviews as being a spontaneous mud fight that happened just before they took the stage [1] [2]. However, backstage footage, shot by Woolley and uploaded in 2024, revealed that the mud look was actually a pre-planned and carefully calculated act, in order to leave a stronger impression on the audience.[3]

According to Rolling Stone magazine, Reznor's mud-covered stage outfit from the show is now part of the collection at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.[4] With NIN's induction in 2020, an exhibit about the concert was also installed.

Lineup

Robin Finck: Guitar, backing vocals
Danny Lohner: Bass, guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
Trent Reznor: Vocals, guitar, keyboards
Chris Vrenna: Drums
James Woolley: Keyboards, backing vocals

Setlist

Video

An official video for the "Happiness In Slavery" performance was created for the Woodstock '94 VHS and LaserDisc release. Unfortunately, it was heavily and poorly edited, even using shots from different parts of the show, resulting in actions on the video not matching up with the audio being played. The beginning has comedian Calvert DeForest (1922–2007) announcing the band and then part "Pinion" and the end fades out during the transition to "Head Like A Hole". This performance was also released on the official Woodstock '94 CD, and it was this performance that earned Nine Inch Nails their second Grammy award.

Woodstock '94 was broadcast in the US on pay-per-view, including Nine Inch Nails' entire performance. VHS recordings of the performance were well-circulated in bootleg trading circles. In September 2013, a remastered video of the full broadcast was posted on YouTube by Kevin Carafa and reposted on the official Nine Inch Nails tumblr page in August of the following year for the show's 20th anniversary.[5] Part of the performance also appears in the Appendage of Closure.

Bootlegs

Many bootlegs exist for this performance, because of the high-quality audio obtained from the pay-per-view broadcast. On one such bootleg, titled When The Whip Comes Down, the liner notes contain the following description:

Like creatures from the black lagoon they slunk on stage, caked head to toe in mud looking like they had just risen from the pits of hell. Nine Inch Nails, without doubt, proved to be the most successful show of the entire festival. They went hell for leather like there was no tomorrow, nothing could stop Trent Reznor and his crew, it was Apocalypse Now brought to life in a field in Saugerties and being transmitted worldwide by pay as you view cable to millions in the safe confines of their own homes. You had to be there as the rain fell to appreciate the sheer beauty of the Nine Inch Nails killing machine on its own out of control rampage. Take no prisoners was the saying of the day as victims fell on all side. Any act that makes even David Letterman sit up and take notice has got to be doing something right. Nine Inch Nails are like taking a helter skelter ride through a tunnel of broken glass. Nine Inch Nails will shred your soul.

External Links

Tour Dates

Previous show - "1994/08/11 Fairfax, VA"

1994/08/13, Woodstock '94

Following show - "N/A: last show"