cdm72's Full Review: And All That Could Have Been [PA] by Nine Inch Nai...
The other day I was pretty bored. So I called my friend Doc Brown and he was pretty bored, too, so we hopped in his DeLorean and sped down the Belt Highway until we reached 88 miles an hour and went back in time to late spring of 2000 when Nine Inch Nails were performing their Fragility 2.0 tour in promotion of their album THE FRAGILE (for those of you who don’t have access to a time machine, you can listen to highlights from that show on the Nine Inch Nails cd Halo 17: And All That Could Have Been. So as not to rub it in your face that I can travel back in time and you can’t, I’ll conduct this review as if it’s the cd and not the actual show which I traveled back in time to see).
It was a pretty good show--I mean CD. I was hesitant at first because back in 1997 I’d come across a live Nine Inch Nails bootleg cd, SOLID GOLD HELL, and hadn’t been impressed at all with either the quality of the recording, or the performances, so a repeat of that letdown I didn’t need. But eventually I gave in and took in the show--I mean bought the cd.
Not bad.
For the longest time my complaint with live cds was always that the songs never sounded like the versions I was familiar with. Some bands just can’t play live to save their souls (you ever seen Maroon 5 live? Me neither, but I’ve seen them on tv and they SUCK live). Then Prince came along with ONE NITE ALONE…LIVE and blew me away with how amazing a live show can sound. Such is not the case with Halo 17. In this case we’re back to simply sounding like the studio versions more or less.
It’s a relief that Reznor, a man so in love with remixes and giving his fans 20 different versions of a song would, on the live cd, just perform the songs straight, as they appeared on the original albums with nary a change in sight (save for a few added expletives here and there). We love these songs, we love the album versions, and that’s what we want to hear. Reznor knows this and delivers.
Halo 17 is obviously a “professionally produced” live cd, the sound isn’t quite as raw as you’d expect. There’s very little noise from the crowd, no patter between songs, no obvious equipment failure. Halo 17 is a very slick live cd. Reznor’s even mixed it so the songs flow one into another with few tell-tale breaks between them.
Song variety is right on point. 16 tracks total with an equal share from the first 3 studio albums, the balance favoring Halo 14, obviously. We have three tracks each from Halos 2 and 5, and four from Halo 8. And when picking songs from the earlier albums, he knows which “hits” to play.
The live band sounds amazing, which is a relief. It’s common knowledge that for the most part the albums are Reznor, with the band on hold for live shows, so it’s good to know the musicians he surrounds himself with can take these frenetic creations of his and take them over with no problem. The way the band sounds on Halo 17, they might as well have been the ones in the studio with him all that time.
From the sound, there was nothing out of the ordinary or noteworthy in Halo 17, simply a “greatest hits” show, with an emphasis on promoting the latest album. I wouldn’t have minded a few lesser known tracks, “Burn” or maybe a Bowie cover could have been interesting. Maybe Halo 17 was just testing the waters of the live cd and seeing what the reaction was. Maybe the next live cd will be the shiznit. You never can tell with Trent Reznor.
In all, Halo 17 is an average cd. I’m tempted to say this is due to the production (I question just how LIVE these tracks really are; for instance the instrumental “The Mark Has Been Made” sounds so good, they could have just been playing Halo 14 through the stadium’s PA system) but I also can’t honestly say that’s a negative. There is nothing more disappointing than a crappy live album, that’s why people hardly ever buy them unless you really LOVE a particular band. Some bands just aren’t live bands, plain and simple. With that in mind, I will recommended Halo 17 with the understanding that the only ones who are gonna buy it are diehards anyway and casual fans probably wouldn’t even consider this kind of purchase. Perhaps if you were lucky like me and could travel back in time to the actual shows you’d have a better appreciation of this awesome band , but too bad so sad, scratch your butt and get glad as my grandmother used to say.
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