The Film
The icons of Industrial music quite fittingly make their presence felt with one of the earliest concert releases to be made available on Blu-ray Disc. Documenting the band's tour for their 2005 "comeback" album release With Teeth and released on Blu-ray in February of 2007, Nine Inch Nails Live: Beside You in Time not only continued the band's tradition of being at the forefront of new technologies when it comes to distributing their music, but also being at the cutting edge of their genre.
Having first discovered NIN in 1989 -- like many other people, I'd assume -- with the group's breakthrough single "Head Like a Hole" from the Pretty Hate Machine album and subsequently following their sophomore effort, The Downward Spiral, I admittedly lost track of NIN in the intervening years leading up to With Teeth. So, it was with much anticipation, and a slight bit of skepticism, that I first put the BD into my player to watch Beside You in Time. Having not even heard the album for which the live shows were documented on the disc, I had no idea what to expect. Would NIN be watered down... even boring? Would it be a show filled with nothing but a play list of "hits?" After all, this was a band nearing the twenty-year mark in their career.
When the first electronic sound effects began to swirl around the room and the band came into view on their shadowy stage set, my fears were assuaged. Silhouetted by the large, yet staid array of LED screens behind them, they stood behind the translucent screen, which separated them from the audience. The guitars started to squeal in a distorted fashion during the first song, "Love is Not Enough."
Perhaps the most surprising thing was the look of Trent Reznor, a man I remember as a lanky, black-clad goth with long tresses of jet black hair and dark makeup. Now, the black clothes are still there in a more subdued fashion -- basic black jeans and tee shirt -- the hair is buzz-cut short, and lanky would not be the description for the man in this video. Reznor has obviously been spending much of his time in the gym. He is THE definition of "buff."
But, image aside, NIN put on an entertaining show. It is all focused on the performance. There aren't any spectacular pyrotechnics or fancy audio/visual effects. It is for the most part, the band performing their hearts out with a high energy level that rarely lets up. The largest extravagances they allow themselves for this darkly lit stage show are some flashing stage lights, smoke effects, and a translucent screen that comes down in front of the stage upon which sundry images are projected, such as animal births, and a dancing George W. and Laura Bush, which elicits its fair share of sneers and middle-fingers from the crowd.
Gladly, the show contains a wealth of new material from NIN's then current album With Teeth, as well as the expected crowd pleasers such as "Closer," "March of the Pigs," "Head Like a Hole" and "Piggy." Trent Reznor was never one for power ballads, but he does have his fair share of more bleak, gloomy, atmospheric Electronica, which the band do a good job of dolling out to vary the pace a bit. The darkly neurotic "Something I Can Never Have" that Reznor sings while clutching himself is one of the shows most moving moments, with lyrics like "You make this all go away/I'm down to just one thing/and I'm starting to scare myself /I just want something I can never have."
For any longtime Nine Inch Nails fans, or even people like myself who may have lost touch with Reznor and company over the years, I highly recommend this release. This offers a bit of something for everyone, particularly if you enjoy Industrial and Hard Rock of any sort.
The Picture
Shot in HD and presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio with a 1080p VC-1 video encoding, the picture quality is among of the best I have yet seen for live concert performances on Blu-ray Disc, yet it is not without it flaws.
Multiple high definition cameras were used in varying degrees of quality to film the different shows that make up this concert disc, and there is noticeable deviation in quality between various edits. There is also some low-level video noise that can be seen in the very darkly lit set. Though this never becomes overly distracting, one is always aware that it is there. There are also various scenes and angles that appear much softer than others, particularly in background details.
There was only one glaring flaw that I found, during the opening verse of "Hurt." The camera focused on Trent Reznor standing in the shadows singing while playing his keyboard; there was an extreme amount of pixelization and posterization obvious on his black jeans and black tee shirt. Apart from that, there was nothing else severely wrong I could find with the transfer. Black level was very good for a concert that was darkly lit throughout and through all of the flashing lights I never once saw a hint of macroblocking. What more could one ask for?
The Sound
Beside You in Time boasts a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack mixed by Elliot Scheiner -- in addition to an optional Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo mix by Dave "Rave" Ogilvie. The 5.1 lossless mix by Elliot Scheiner is by far one of the most engrossing and adventurous pop/rock mixes available so far on Blu-ray. Being one of the preeminent mix engineers of the SACD/DVD-A era responsible for such classic high-res multichannel mixes as Beck's Sea Change (SACD & DVD-A), The Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots 5.1 (DVD-A) and R.E.M.'s entire Warner catalogue (DVD-A) which includes such classic albums by the group like Automatic for the People and Out of Time -- Scheiner on this release is unafraid to break loose of the typical audience perspective mix for live recordings and use the surround channels for something other than reverberation and audience noise.
In Scheiner's mix, sounds roam free -- at times making their way around the entire room. Electronic effects ping-pong from side to side, guitars often come from the sides, and not from immediately in front of the viewer. During the chorus of "The Line Begins to Blur," Trent Reznor's vocal comes from right above you, and it almost feels like he's actually in your head. Some might find it sacrilegious to mix a live show in such a manner, but I find it invigorating and quite suited to Nine Inch Nails' style of music. Did anyone protest in the 1970's when Pink Floyd took their Dark Side of the Moon show on the road with Quadraphonic sound?
As for the actual sound quality, well -- it is as good as it can be for Rock music. The low frequencies coming from the subwoofer will shake your foundations, all instrumentation is well defined and never lost in the mix, and high frequencies are laid back and easy on the ears. Vocals are natural, well rounded and clear. Most of all, as with all Rock performances, it sounds best when it is played at top volumes, so crank it up and disturb your neighbors for a while. Just don't tell them I told you to do so.
The Extras
You won't find any useless "Making of" or "Behind the whatever" videos on this release. Instead, what you get here is a wealth of additional live performances and music videos that should offer good multiple viewing value, particularly with the Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack available for all but the rehearsal footage and Stills Gallery. A couple of features also worthy of mention are the alternate angles available during the performance of the songs during which images are being projected on the translucent screen, and the availability of English lyric subtitles for everything on the disc, including the extras.
The North American Summer Tour 2006 consists of five additional live performances from the summer leg of the tour, also recorded in 1.78:1 high definition with a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack, but with noticeably inferior picture quality that almost looks like standard definition in comparison to the main feature.
In addition there are two live rehearsal videos from 2005 recorded in standard definition 480i/p, which are the only materials that do not have a surround soundtrack (Dolby Stereo).
There are music videos (480i/p), all with Dolby TrueHD 5.1 surround soundtracks, for: "The Hand that Feeds," "Love is Not Enough," and "Only," plus a Stills Gallery encoded in 1080p.
Final Thoughts
This is an excellent release with superb sound quality, an engrossing lossless 5.1 soundtrack and high quality high definition picture that will work wonders for showing off your home theater system. I highly recommend it for all fans of Nine Inch Nails, Industrial music, or Hard Rock music in general
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