THE NIN HOTLINE

San Diego brought with it a flurry of unusual activity at the Nine Inch Nails show. In a concert that already has a lot of cameras, there were EVEN MORE cameras, some swooping around on cranes. The cadre of fans that camp out all day to get their spot on the rail, again, spilled onto the floor to find strangers already in the best spots, as part of a production that some folks on Reddit got a behind the scenes peek at - despite “PLEASE - NO PICTURES OR POSTING ON SOCIAL MEDIA” being printed on the top of the plan that got posted there.

Regulars to NIN concerts noted unusual behavior from these people on the rail, and their special treatment, including dedicated security, and some people immediately drew the conclusion that Trent Reznor hates NIN fans and wanted fashionable influencers to be the ones visible in close-up camera shots for what must be an upcoming concert film. Why?

“Can we leave our spots now,” one of these disaffected interlopers sent to a group text that was observed - and photographed - by one member of the fan community, along with the reply “Yes as long as decent looking people take your spots,” and you can imagine how well this went over when it was posted to Discordance, NIN’s official chat community.

Reader, everything you feared has become true. Trent Reznor hates ugly people. Nine Inch Nails is “grasping at straws for the younger audience,” the NIN camp are creeping on minors, NIN is becoming KISS, and “Nine Inch Live: 2027 will almost certainly be sponsored by Kylie Cosmetics, Urban Outfitters and Discord“ and since young influencers have been posting about going to NIN shows on TikTok, this lineup of disinterested actors on the rail must be a last gasp for relevancy (from a band that sold out just about every show on their most recent tour, and continues to sell out arenas into 2026). The New Management has taken control over the NIN subreddit. John Crawford is doing Mariqueen’s crooked bidding and ensuring that only beautiful influencers get the good seats and access to catering. The undead lich of Walt Disney has cursed Atticus Ross, using him to draw Trent Reznor into an eternity of corporate whoredom. Nine Inch Nails as you know it is dead.

Quite the turn of events on a tour where members of the NIN camp have been walking around, giving out limited edition shirts to fans. Where the very Discordance admins that are suppressing angry fans online have also been sharing polaroids of concert attendees excited enough about the show to go beyond jeans and a tshirt. Randomly upgrading people in seats to the floor. Trent Reznor also quietly does a shit ton of really big-hearted charity, and has been giving lanyards and stickies to awkward dorks for as long as I’ve been going to NIN shows.

Nonetheless, some people who were hurt by their experience seem to think that Trent, or Kraw, or PerfectRug, or Management have made an executive decision that NIN fans are ugly and fat, and are erasing all who dissent, and are otherwise refusing to acknowledge their concerns. Some of those people are propagating rumors, casting aspersions, and suggesting some pretty disgusting things, because they had a bad experience with people who are part of this production. I’ve also noticed expressions of ageism aimed against young fans and newcomers to Nine Inch Nails. That might be even slightly titillating if it was anything more interesting than “Oh yeah, name three songs” gatekeeping.

There’s a lot that’s terrible in this world. A lot of us have lived through trauma, more are experiencing trauma every day. Let down by so many seemingly good people who end up being shady, we’re trained to be on our guard for heroes to fall. And when a third party brought in for an interesting project includes some people making some poor choices, there’s clearly the temptation to use that as an excuse to unload grief and anger about the ever-changing world and focus that on an artist you’ve been following for decades. Every tour will have its melodrama, but I think that’s a terrible excuse for maligning the character of people who are working hard to try and enhance the experience for the fans of all ages that continue filling up arenas.

Anaheim was the next stop on the tour, and the same group of people were doing similar work for that show, and if reports on the internet are to be believed, things were communicated better with the folks in line for the show. It was much less contentious, and I didn’t see any text messages about old white dudes.

So - if we’re lucky, we’ll see a Peel It Back concert film of some variety. Maybe something you’re not expecting. Or maybe it ends up next to the Wave Goodbye footage, because plans didn’t work out.