Big Big Sky

Van Halen opening for Black Sabbath on their first extensive American tour. Yeah, it was sweet. (Ozzy opened his pants and flashed Tony Iommi and Bill Ward.) David Bowie on his first tour after releasing the totally awesome Low and 'Heroes' albums. Way cool and art-tastic. (Adrian Belew and Roger Powell in the band and Bowie played my third-fave song of his, "Stay.") Queen on the tour that fostered the Live Killers album? It was okay. Nirvana at Roseland? Pretty galvanizing. U2's first arena tour in support of The Unforgettable Fire? A rare exercise in making an 18K venue feel like a 1000-seat club. Ditto Radiohead's shed campaign in support of Amnesiac. The first leg of The Black Parade's tour? Ambitious, engaging and I felt the heat from the pyro from my second-tier seat.

Nine Inch Nails' appearance in Cleveland last Friday was the best arena-rock experience I have ever had in my tenure on Planet Earth. And, as you can tell, I've been to a few. NIN CEO Trent Reznor has been on something like nine covers of AP and I've seen him more times than I've visited my sister in the past three years. (Sorry 'bout that, Jill.) But his recent stand at Cleveland's Quicken Loans arena proved that he's surpassed his heroes, his cultural comrades (in both electronics-based rock and alt-rock in general) and whatever's coming down the 'pike in the future. Many bands in today's scene have cited him in one context or another, from bleeding-heart-on-sleeve confessional lyrics (What, you think Chris Carrabba invented that stuff?) to sonic intensity (ie, making computers, samplers and synthesizers have just as much intensity as a Stratocaster run through a wall of Marshalls). The fact that he's creating elaborate, complex shows out of his own pocket proves his dedication to his craft and his audience.

NIN's current Lights In The Sky Tour is a grandiose production that's artistically solid and devoid of any goofiness. (Am I the only guy who thought Judas Priest singer Rob Halford looked ridiculous driving a motorbike onstage?) I'd love to tell you all about the lighting, which ranged from moody ambiance, light grenades thrown by SWAT-team attack forces, CCTV surveillance and glimpses into digital underworlds. (Seriously, this is the only show where the further away your seats are, the better it gets.) I'd prefer you buy some tickets, or at the very least, go visit this fine montage.

But this elaborate presentation might as well be used as a Six Flags attraction if the music wasn't so compelling. This is arguably the best band Reznor has put together. Robin Finck is back in the fold, his isometric guitarwork making the material from NIN's latest, The Slip, seem even more jagged, twisted and resonant. Bassist Justin Meldal-Johnsen is equally adept at cervical-collar thrashing ("Gave Up," "Wish") or textured spatial relations (on tracks from Reznor's instrumental Ghosts disc). Alessandro Cortini's mastery of electronics is simply awe-inspiring in these days of plug-ins and easily recallable patches. Josh Freese is no stranger to anybody who reads AP, his incredibly muscular yet precise drumming is as driven as Michael Phelps in China. Then there's Reznor, who seems equally at home dumping a synth into the barricade pit, repeatedly conjugating the word "f**k" or playing such decidedly non-furious instruments as vibraphone and electric piano. I literally hurt my neck trying to see what everyone was doing onstage and enjoying the lights at the same time.

What makes NIN's aesthetic triumphs even more resonant is that, well, nobody thought he was going to be around this long. From the critics who dismissed Reznor as a "mope rocker," to the fickle tastes of Alternative Nation to the industrial/electro-rock scene Reznor came up in. But now that T. Rez has his cake (a cake certainly worth eating) the big question is who can top him? Who's going to be the first band from the contemporary punk/emo/etc scene to achieve this level of artistic and social relevance?

Let the bar-raising begin, friends. ASAP.