Wide crowd shot inside an arena during a Nine Inch Nails concert, with the NIN logo projected on large side screens, bright stage lighting cutting through haze, and a packed floor and seating bowl.
Concerts, Reviews

REVIEW: Nine Inch Nails Peel It Back & Get Closer at Desert Diamond Arena (3-6-26)

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High-angle view of Nine Inch Nails performing on a center platform under intense red lighting and smoke, with a suspended lighting rig overhead and a packed arena crowd surrounding the stage in Glendale, Arizona.
Nine Inch Nails turn the center-stage platform into a red-lit storm of fog and light.
Audience photo by: Katherine Amy Vega

PHOENIX — An impressive crowd gathered at the Desert Diamond Arena for opener Boyz Noize and the legendary Nine Inch Nails. Bass pounded through the speakers as the opening set welcomed attendees to a darkened room, with occasional red lighting shifting between the center of the room, a shrouded, large box-shaped object sitting in the growing sea of fans.

High-angle view of Nine Inch Nails performing on a center platform under intense red lighting and smoke, with a suspended lighting rig overhead and a packed arena crowd surrounding the stage in Glendale, Arizona.
Nine Inch Nails turn the center-stage platform into a red-lit storm of fog and light.
Audience photo by: Katherine Amy Vega

The room transformed as the walls were shed to reveal Trent Reznor playing the gentle notes to “(You Made It Feel Like) Home” (2022). His warm voice invites us into a feeling of intimacy while being surrounded by other fans in the shadows, gazing into the gold light holding him. The experience felt like I was the only one in the room, though when I looked, the arena had little room to spare.

Wide arena shot of Trent Reznor at a small center stage lit by a single white glow, surrounded by a dense crowd in near darkness.
Nine Inch Nails open the night with Trent Reznor alone at the center-stage rig as the crowd closes in around him.
Audience photo by: Ali Crimson

The band assembles and Josh Freese returns

The warm light became cold, brighter, and sterile as the music transitioned to “Non-Entity” (2007). Guitarist/keyboardist Robin Finck and bassist Stu Brooks appeared, coordinated in all black with Reznor, to loud cheers.

High-angle view of Nine Inch Nails performing on a small center platform surrounded by a packed arena crowd, with bright white stage light cutting through haze at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona.
Nine Inch Nails perform on the center stage as the crowd packs Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona (March 6, 2026).
Audience photo by: Katherine Amy Vega

“Piggy” from the 1994 The Downward Spiral album followed, the lights shift back to gold, now a low glow this time with Reznor on his feet, bouncing with his finger to the ceiling signaling the room to bounce with him to the beat.

Close-up concert photo of Trent Reznor singing into a microphone on a dim, smoky stage, wearing a dark oversized jacket with in-ear monitors visible.
Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor grips the mic in a tight, moody close-up within the stage haze surrounding him.
Photo by: Sara Perez

The glow allowed the room to slip into darkness, leaving only a screen at the front of the room showing a drum solo that marked the entrance of newly returned drummer Josh Freese, starting only on the North American leg of the tour. The curtain that once showed Freese lifts, showing the entire band surrounded by sheer veils.

Black-and-white projection of a drummer playing fills large hanging curtains, with the arena around it mostly dark and silhouetted.
Nine Inch Nails project a stark black-and-white close-up of the drummer Josh Freese across the sheer curtains during the early set.
Audience photo by: Ali Crimson

Visuals as an instrument

Live projections of each band member are shown on the sheer curtains as the band blasts into “Wish” (1992). New visuals come with each song; “March of Pigs” (1994) is the first time soundwaves are projected. A dramatic piano piece guides the performance into “Reptile” (1994) a standout at the sixth song in their set, the introduction contrasting heavily, grinding with aggressively flashing green lights as white whips across the screens with the rise and falls of the music.

Side-angle view of the stage draped in translucent curtains, with green lighting and swirling black-and-white projections partially revealing the band while the crowd watches in the dark.
Nine Inch Nails perform behind shimmering sheer curtains as green light and abstract projections wash over the stage.
Audience photo by: Katherine Amy Vega

Peak intensity and set highlights

“If there is a hell, I’ll see you there,” Reznor sings to us in the foggy, red-lit arena, as the audience claps along with “Heresy” (1994). Lights flash chaotically as the lyrics “God is dead, and no one cares” echo into every inch of the space. Shifting away from the earlier chaotic lights, the room darkens to a single spotlight on Reznor, with smaller projections on the walls between the band members that look like a house of mirrors showcasing dancing white silhouettes of him performing “Copy of A” (2013) from Hesitation Marks.

Wide arena view of the band playing behind translucent drapes, with bright backlighting projecting large silhouettes onto the curtains and stage lighting rigs hanging overhead.
Nine Inch Nails perform behind sheer curtains as towering shadows and silhouettes ripple across the stage.
Audience photo by: Katherine Amy Vega

The energy high, beneath the red and blue flashing lights during “Gave Up” (1992), a small, seemingly friendly mosh pit begins on the floor level. The room is one with Nine Inch Nails, every moment seeming perfectly executed to the plan of long-time industry professionals.

Wide stage photo of Nine Inch Nails performing live in smoky yellow light, with the vocalist at a microphone, guitarist in the foreground, drummer at left, and lighting rigs behind the band.
Nine Inch Nails performing at the O2 Apollo Manchester on June 20, 2022.
Photography: aliina s. (CC BY 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons

Drowned in red and fog, almost by magic, Reznor has returned to the smaller center platform. Electric fuchsia zaps and flashes in the foggy clouds surrounding the stage as “Vessel” (2007), from Year Zero, pumps through the veins of every listener. The music surges beneath the skin.

High, wide arena view with a bright white glow and haze rising from the center stage, surrounded by a dense crowd, with a large side screen showing black-and-white live footage.
Nine Inch Nails ignite the center stage in a burst of white light as the crowd surrounds them.
Audience photo by: Katherine Amy Vega

The final stretch: “Closer” to the closing moments

Entering the final songs of the set list, the most popular song of Nine Inch Nails’ nearly 40-year career, “Closer” (1994) starts and engulfs the room in purple, fuchsia, and white, flickering to the heat of the music. The feeling this song gives is undeniable; the words are on the lips of everyone there.

High, wide shot of a packed arena with a small center stage surrounded by the crowd, as bright white beams cut through haze and cast rippling, curtain-like light patterns across sections of the audience.
Nine Inch Nails light up the center stage as rippling, curtain-like beams pattern the crowd.
Audience photo by: Katherine Amy Vega

“Parasite” (2010), originally by How To Destroy Angels (a band featuring Reznor and his wife Mariqueen Maandig Reznor) poured fresh green lights and fog down the room. The projections return with close-ups of Reznor, where I note a link chain around his neck I hadn’t noticed before. In this song, Trent Reznor’s vocals have a more digitized effect than in previous songs in the set.

Nine Inch Nails bathe the arena in red as sharp white beams cut through the haze over the center stage.
Audience photo by: Katherine Amy Vega

 “As Alive As You Need Me To Be” (2025), off the newest album TRON Ares: Divergence (a 24-track soundtrack for a movie of the same name) plays with coordinating white and red flashing lighting. The full band returns to play “Mr. Self Destruct” (1994) with the entire stage flashing, energy peaking — a song they had played so many times before, and it shows only with the smoothness of their performance. It is practiced to perfection.

Wide arena view after the sheer curtain lifts, with the full band visible through heavy haze and bright stage lights, while a large silhouette projection looms on a side curtain and the crowd cheers at the front rail.
Nine Inch Nails surge into the open stage as the curtains lift, flooding the room with light, haze, and towering silhouettes.
Audience photo by: Ali Crimson

“Less Than” (2017) raises the sheer curtains that provided the veiled cover for the entire show, signaling that it is one of the final three songs of the evening. This is the one and only time I believe Reznor plays a tambourine the entire show, which I did not expect.

“Head Like a Hole,” “Hurt,” and an unexpected interruption

The closing songs for the evening are fan favorites “Head Like A Hole” (1989), off Pretty Hate Machine, and “Hurt” (1994) from The Downward Spiral. “Head Like A Hole” is one of the most recognizable songs of the band’s extensive catalog, inspiring dozens of covers over the decades. 

Nine Inch Nails blast through a bright, blue-lit moment as Trent Reznor raises a hand to the crowd at Staples Center in 2013.
Photography: Al Pavangkanan (CC BY 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons

At the beginning of “Hurt”, a fight broke out in front of the stage. As it was yet to be broken up, Reznor stopped the song and spoke directly to the people saying, “Hey we’re not here for this shit man, hey HEY!! There’s enough bullshit happening out there, we don’t need it happening in the fuck here.” He turned, awaiting the resolution of the problem before continuing the performance after his very Dad-like scolding. 

Wide stage view with the band performing amid thick fog, diagonal light beams cutting across a wall of small lights, and a packed audience filling the foreground.
Nine Inch Nails push the full-band set into a haze of diagonal beams and drifting smoke as the crowd surges at the front.
Audience photo by: Ali Crimson

“Hurt” closed the show, giving us a finale of Reznor’s emotive lyrics and vocals to send us off into the night. There was no encore, and one wasn’t needed.

High-angle view of the arena after the concert, with the NIN logo projected on large hanging curtains as the crowd gathers and begins to clear the floor under hazy yellow light.
Nine Inch Nails leave the arena glowing as the NIN logo lingers on the curtains after the show.
Audience photo by: Katherine Amy Vega

Peeling back the decades

You would think this performance would be one of simple nostalgia, but the music felt as fresh as when I listened to each release by NIN throughout the decades. The professionalism of this show was unmatched, smoothly transitioning between stages like the members had teleportation powers. The industrial music coursed through my veins with a unique awakening, the memorized words flowing from my tongue. The Peel It Back tour is an apt title, as this set list peels back the layers of years, and it is new again.

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Ali Crimson
Music Journalist at Burning Hot Events
Seasoned Interviewer and Journalist, Founder of SoundChaser, NerdChex and Board & Metal, Singer and Avid Genre Explorer. A fan of dark humor, adventure and good people.

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