Trent Reznor has wanted to bring Nine Ninch Nails back to the stage for a long time. After tons of cancelled festival dates and pandemic-addled false starts, NIN finally played their first show since 2018 last night. The band announced a brief tour back in February, and they started that tour last night at Raleigh’s Red Hat Amphitheater. (Boy Harsher opened the show; other dates will Yves Tumor or 100 Gecs as openers.) During the show, Reznor and his band played most of the NIN classics that you’d expect, and they also took time to salute one of Reznor’s heroes.

According to The News & Observer, NIN played for about an hour and 45 minutes last night. At one point, Reznor told the crowd, “I’ve missed being up here. I’ve missed the connection. Thank you.” In the second half of the set, NIN played two songs from Reznor’s late friend and collaborator David Bowie.

First, NIN did “I’m Afraid Of Americans,” a song that would be very familiar to any NIN fan. Reznor co-produced Bowie’s single in 1997, and he starred in the video. Nine Inch Nails have covered that song at a lot of shows, including at their 2017 tour opener. They followed that cover with a version of Bowie’s 1980 hit “Fashion.” Nine Inch Nails have never technically covered that song live before, but Reznor did perform that song with his regular collaborator Atticus Ross and his wife and How To Destroy Angels bandmate Mariqueen Maandig during a Bowie-tribute livestream last year. Both songs sounded sick. Below, check out fan-made videos of both covers. Also, have a look at last night’s setlist, via Setlist.fm.

SETLIST:
01 “Somewhat Damaged”
02 “The Day The World Went Away”
03 “The Frail”
04 “The Wretched”
05 “March Of The Pigs”
06 “1,000,000”
07 “Survivalism”
08 “Piggy”
09 “Closer”
10 “The Perfect Drug”
11 “The Becoming”
12 “This Isn’t the Place”
13 “Every Day Is Exactly the Same”
14 “I’m Afraid Of Americans” (David Bowie cover)
15 “Fashion”
16 “Only”
17 “The Hand That Feeds”
18 “Head Like A Hole”
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19 “Reptile”
20 “And All That Could Have Been”
21 “Hurt”