I watched a DVD of Nine Inch Nails in concert---And All That Could Have Been from the 2000 Fragility 2.0 tour. The video is dark and smoky as it was shot by the bands crew and is quite intense and tightly packed.

I was kinda underwhelmed. The stage performance was atmospheric and dark, the music was industrial, but it lack any spark. It suggested that Nine Inch Nails are a powerful live group but they didn't deliver here. There there was grunge, melodramatic angst and bleakness; the band was animated and played the songs with high energy amongst intense lighting and background videos. There was no smashed keyboards and guitars littering the stage to end the show. This was about image.

I had come expecting expanded song structures, odd time signatures, shifting arrangements filled with novel sounds and tremendous textural variety. Layered soundcapes if you like as on The Downward Spiral. That's the studio I realized. Live is very different.

The musicality that underlies Reznor's most ear-shattering work was indicated by Disc 2 titled Still that includes additional songs ("The Fragile," "The Day the World Went Away") recorded "live in a deconstructed fashion."

This is a band that has their own Flickr stream has its videos banned, produces movie soundtrack --eg., for David Lynch's Lost Highway, conducted a viral marketing campaign for Year Zero, and writes their music on a laptop---jotting down down sounds and textures-- and recording on the road.

The band is Trent Reznor, as he is solely responsible for their musical direction and is supported by a regular backing band.