Smoke rises from the stage at 8:15 sharp. The sound of pumping air and whisper-like string pulses steadily increase in volume (this is "999,999") as the screech of a guitar emanates from the stage, Trent Reznor, lead singer of Nine Inch Nails, enters, spotlights illuminate the band, dressed in all black. Right into The Slip album opener "1,000,000" Reznor repeats "I feel a million miles away, I don't feel anything at all."

Lights flash white for "Letting You," the entire back of the stage is dedicated to racks of lighting and LED nets. The band cover more than 1/3 of the new album with "Letting You," "Discipline" and "Echoplex", the new songs -- along with Reznor's band (which includes famed studio drummer Josh Freese and long-time member Robin Finck) -- draw a huge crowd rivaling Kanye West's on the other side of the park. The opening drum part to "March of the Pigs" draws a frenzy, this is what the crowd has been waiting for -- a cathartic reliving of what it must have been like 18 years ago at the first Lollapalooza. The crowd is flooded in white light as Reznor screams and snaps his neck, he motions them to clap as his band cuts through an extended distorted synth outro.

When "Closer" starts, with the recognizable "boom-cha, boom-cha" everyone roars. Synthesizers encased in metal are then brought onstage, in what seems an homage to Kraftwerk, and the band plays selections from the instrumental album Ghosts. Reznor has worked hard to create a visually complex performance, LED nets appear and project images of a desert, blue sky and dying trees. The clear images look real and when simulating rain the audience gasps, confused by how it could be raining as they don't feel anything. During "The Greater Good" blurred images are projected on the stage, and, as the focus is pulled back, Reznor's face is revealed originating from a handheld camera streaming live. Afterwards Trent disengages each image with a handheld remote, it is hard to describe how he 'paints' his way out of the images with the wave of his hand.

Now something familiar: "Pinion" merges into the 'Broken' classic "Wish" and then "Terrible Lie," ending with Trent launching his guitar into the stage, crashing into the background, he is now bleeding. As the band pulls their quote-un-quote "hits" the crowd responds. "Only," "The Hand That Feeds" and "Head Like Hole" receive enormous chants and yells from the over-stimulated crowd. The stage turns black, the band exists and then the iconic N I N symbol is projected in red. After a few minutes they re-enter and Reznor is nostalgically remembering how "Perry called us for the first Lollapalooza... we were just kids." As the opening piano line to "Hurt" begins the fans raise their phones (these were lighters 18 years ago) and listen. For the first time you can almost hear Kanye in the distance ending his set with "Stronger".

Set list:
999,999
1,000,000
Letting You
Discipline
March of the Pigs
The Frail
Closer
Gave Up
The Warning
Vessel
Ghosts (3 instrumentals)
Piggy
The Greater Good
Pinion
Wish
Terrible Lie
Survivalism
The Big Come Down
Only
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like a Hole

Encore:
Echoplex
Hurt
In This Twilight

(Photos by Mark Venema, Wire Image)