Nine Inch Nails Wave Goodbye to New York With Bauhaus' Murphy

Nine Inch Nails played their last ever New York concert last night at Terminal 5, ending a brief four-show run in the Big Apple. At both of their Terminal 5 shows, Trent Reznor and his soon-to-be-unemployed band welcomed Bauhaus' Peter Murphy to the stage to perform a handful of songs. The last shows also featured set lists packed with dozens of Nine Inch Nails' best songs and favorite covers as Reznor waved goodbye to his East Coast die-hards.

Rather than ending his venue-spanning NYC residence with hits like "Hurt" or "Head Like a Hole," Reznor, with Murphy onstage, capped off his stay with covers of Bauhaus' classic "Bela Lugosi's Dead" and, finally, Pere Ubu's "Final Solution." The August 25th show also featured Murphy guesting on Bauhaus' "Kick in the Eye" and NIN's fan-favorite cover of Joy Division's "Dead Souls." At last night's show, Murphy descended from T5's belfry vampire-style, hanging upside as a chain lowered him to the stage, all while singing "Reptile" (Brooklyn Vegan has video of Murphy's Dracula feat, which he memorably pulled off at Coachella several years ago, too).

As Reznor has mentioned several times in the weeks since announcing the retirement of the live Nine Inch Nails, he reiterated to the T5 crowd that NIN will continue to make music, but that his concert days were over. As Rock Daily previously reported, Reznor's NYC stand also featured a performance of the entire The Downward Spiral at Webster Hall.

Next up on Nine Inch Nails' Wave Goodbye tour is a pair of concerts at Chicago's Aragon Ballroom this Friday and Saturday before Reznor performs Sunday, August 30th at Toronto's Virgin Festival. Reznor will officially put his live performance days to rest with a four-day, four-venue stand in Los Angeles. Rock Daily will be at the final (ever?) Nine Inch Nails concert on September 6th at Los Angeles' Echoplex, so check back for our full report.

Related Stories:
• Nine Inch Nails Perform Full "Downward Spiral" as Wave Goodbye Tour Gets Underway
• Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor Explains Why He Left Twitter
• Trent Reznor Talks Future of Nine Inch Nails in New Interview

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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