Nine Inch Nails have finally decided to treat their fans with a performance of ‘The Perfect Drug’, 21 years after it was first released.
Back in 1997, US film director David Lynch approached Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor to compose a song for his upcoming film. The track was ‘The Perfect Drug’, and it ended up serving as the lead single from the Reznor-produced soundtrack to Lost Highway.
Since then, the song has gone on to become something of a fan favourite, despite never having been released on an official album by the group.
However, Trent Reznor himself has distanced himself from the track, revealing back in 2005 it’s the one piece of work he’s “least-satisfied with”.
“The only thing I think I really don’t like that much is ‘The Perfect Drug’ song,” he explained on BBC Radio 1. “It was one of those things where you have a week to do a track for a movie, the mindset that you kind of adapt in that situation, or I did, was ‘let’s go in and experiment and see what happens, and it’s not, y’know, whatever comes out of it, it’s not the end of the world’.”
“And I think what came out of it, married with a bloated, over-budget video, feels like … the least thing that I would play to somebody if they said play me, y’know, the top hundred songs you’ve written, that probably wouldn’t be in the top hundred. I’m not cringing about it, but it’s not my favorite piece.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX_jiZfnc7Y
Notably, fans also asked Trent Reznor for years when Nine Inch Nails were finally going to play ‘The Perfect Drug’ in concert. Jokingly, Reznor usually pointed towards the drum solo as the reason for the track’s absence in concert.
“The drum solo would make Jerome’s arms fall off,” he explained to a fan on the band’s website, prompting the band’s drummer at the time, Jerome Dillon, to note that they “never rule out the possibility of playing any of the songs live”.
Now, 21 years after the song was first released, Nine Inch Nails treated their fans with a performance of ‘The Perfect Drug’.
Performing at the iconic Red Rocks Amphitheatre in the US state of Colorado, Trent Reznor and co. slipped the 1997 single into their three-song encore. Needless to say, fans of the band were stunned to witness something they thought would never happen.
This song seems to be coming at a period of time where Trent Reznor is enjoying dusting off a few of the deeper cuts. This performance comes just days after the band played through the entirety of 1992’s Broken EP at the opening show of their tour. Whether this means that these songs might be making regular appearances in setlists, we can’t say, but we’re definitely excited to hear what other lost classics he digs up for us!
Check out Nine Inch Nails’ ‘The Perfect Drug’:
Nine Inch Nails @ Red Rocks, Colorado, USA 18/09/2018 Setlist
‘Somewhat Damaged’
‘The Day The World Went Away’
‘1000000’
‘Less Than’
‘March Of The Pigs’
‘Sanctified’
‘The Lovers’
‘Me, I’M Not’
‘Shit Mirror’
‘Ahead Of Ourselves’
‘God Break Down The Door’
‘Suck’ (Pigface cover)
‘Reptile’
‘Gave Up’
‘The Great Destroyer’
‘Burning Bright (Field On Fire)’
‘Wish’
‘Head Like A Hole’
Encore:
‘The Perfect Drug’
‘Over And Out’
‘Hurt’
