I just got back home to LA from the Bakersfield show. Nothing really to report that may add to the Add Violence ARG theories. Just a few T-shirts at the merch stand. One new shirt is of the machine dials and another simply says "Anxiety" in a white box.

Trent has said he wanted to tone down the light show. EDM, he says, is full of sensory overload and he hoped to be the antithesis of that on this leg of the tour. The stage was simple -- two rows of lights pointing in at the band from each side of the stage and a giant white-sheet background. The classic NIN slowly appeared on the white sheet just before the band appeared.

He opened with Branches/Bones but I felt his mic was off. It was hard to hear him at first. They soon fixed that.

They then segued into Copy of A, which is always rad, and topped that with Less Than. Less Than played really well. Lights sitting on the stage pointing at the roof were revealed during Less Than, as well as the coolest light feature of the show. They somehow shot off bright lights very quickly that put giant shadows of the band members on the white background. The shadows were arena height but the lights were firing off so quickly and in a certain order that made the shadows move with the music. It was simple and mesmerizing.

He covered Parasite by How to Destroy Angels mid-show. No Mariqueen Maandig cameo. They kicked it off with a guitar solo from Robin. I thought it was something new I hadn't heard off Add Violence before I heard the chorus. Parasite!

Trent then addressed the crowd. I'll paraphrase:

"We've been holed up the last 3 years making albums and soundtracks. Haven't really been paying attention to the news. What's going on in the world? Everything alright?" He then laughed and said, "Ah, f*** it, I'm not going to say anything about Trump."

He then went on to say how he missed his friend David Bowie and that they reworked one of his songs in the studio when he died for closure. NIN didn't release the song for commercial purposes. He then played an incredibly haunting rendition of I Can't Give Everything Away. Trent's vocals were the best I've heard from him (and I've been to about 12 NIN shows). The second verse had Bowie's recorded voice harmonized with Trent. They put some strange lights on him and two commercial, studio-quality cameras came in on him from both sides of the stage.

That's when it became apparent that they were recording the whole show with giant commercial cameras from multiple angles. I would be shocked if the whole concert isn't released in some form or another. They had two giant cameras on tracks on the sides of the stage as well as at least two floating camera men.

He then said, "This is something from Add Violence," and played The Lovers. It was the only other song besides Less Than that made the cut from AV. I did not listen to AV before the show and The Lovers kind of lost me live. It was complex and difficult to follow.

Reptile really burned, but the highlight of the show -- by far -- was Burning Bright (Field on Fire). Holy F'n Jeez, it was awesome. Trent screamed the verse through a megaphone, the bridge sounded better than the record and the chorus was sung by the entire band (minus Trent). Trent came in screaming FFFIIIIRRRE!!! with everyone through the megaphone. It sounded way better live than on NTAE.

They then wheeled the lights on the sides of the stage to the rear so they were pointing at the crowd. He then ended the concert with a series of hard hits like Hand that Feeds, Wish, Gave Up and Head Like a Hole. The lights were blinding, as always.

One disappointment -- a 1-song encore of Hurt. I was looking forward to the outro of Background World. But, nope.

There were some graphics played on the white sheet occasionally but nothing ARG-worthy. Maybe they flashed messages really quickly, or something.

They also handed out posters when leaving the show. It's the same as the promo pic for the concert, the "I can't seem to wake up 2017" promo pic.

So, the only new stuff played was:
1. Branches/Bones
2. Less Than
3. The Lovers
4. Burning Bright

He covered
1. Parasite (HTDA)
2. I Can't Giver Everything Away (David Bowie)

Everything else was the classics, like the March of the Pigs, Piggy, The Frail, The Wretched and Closer series. He also played Burn.

That's all I got.