In early December 2008, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails revealed, via his blog at nin.com, that he had planned to film a show in 3D and release it theatrically and on DVD, BluRay, etc. Unfortunately, the record company he approached regarding producing and funding refused to cooperate, but only after months had gone by since he had asked them. Without enough time left on the tour to do the filming comfortably, even with alternate production and funding, Reznor chalked it up as a lost opportunity. However, the next day he stated that the band's upcoming performance in Victoria would have a "very relaxed camera / camcorder policy." This policy was also in effect for the Portland and Sacramento shows later that month.
At this point, NIN fans began organizing an effort to have the band's show in Las Vegas recorded by dozens of fans. A website was created at http://thisoneisonus.org/ to keep people up to date on their efforts to create a DVD documenting these shows as a gift to NIN fans. Just before Christmas, Reznor hinted that a "small holiday gift" was in the works; on January 7, 2009, this gift was revealed to be over 400 GB of high definition film footage from thee separate, complete shows of the recently completed tour. "If any of you could find a LINK to that footage I'll bet some enterprising fans could assemble something pretty cool," said Reznor, before adding, "Oh yeah, you didn't hear this from me." Links to torrents of this footage were posted on the message board at nin.com.
So there you have it. Trent Reznor himself was encouraging his fans to download footage of his concerts and make "something pretty cool" out of it. That's good enough for me, especially since this may be the closest thing to an official live release from this tour that we will see.
Now, I don't normally post about videos on this blog, and I don't intend to start now. Fortunately, the hard working folks at thisoneisonus.org have created a professionally mastered audio version of these concerts and made them available for download. The release is entitled Another Version of the Truth, just like the eventual video version will be, and it consists of two main parts: Las Vegas, which was created from a variety of fan audio sources from the Las Vegas show, and The Gift, which was created from the footage supplied by Nine Inch Nails, edited and mixed "to get the best of each show." In total, there is almost 4 and a half hours of music between the two parts, with songs spanning NIN's entire career.
Trent and his entire band are on fire in both shows, making a lot of the songs sound even more aggressive than the studio versions. For the most part the arrangements are left untouched, but there are some nice moments like the extended intros to "Only" and "Echoplex". The biggest exception is "Piggy", which gets reworked as "Ghosts Piggy", coming after a set of songs from Ghosts I-IV; Josh Freese's drumming at the end of this song is amazing. The set lists for both shows are nearly identical, with only a handful of songs differing between the two. As far as sound quality is concerned, Las Vegas sounds a little more distant and has more audience noise, which is to be expected since it was made from fan recordings; The Gift, on the other hand, sounds like a professional live album. I think both recordings certainly have their own merits and both deserve to be listened to.
Another Version of the Truth is currenly available via BitTorrent. I don't believe I've ever covered torrents here, so some explanation may be in order for those unfamiliar with the protocol. Brian's BitTorrent FAQ and Guide covers the topic in more detail than I ever could, so go please go there to read all about it if you need to; if you still have any questions, let me know and I will be happy to answer them. Once you're all set up to handle torrents, you can download either the MP3 version (320kb) or the FLAC version. Neither one of them is a small download - the MP3 version is 623.33 megabytes, while the FLAC version weighs in at 1.76 gigabytes. The time you spend downloading either version will be well worth it, though. Happy listening!
URLs:
http://thisoneisonus.org/
At this point, NIN fans began organizing an effort to have the band's show in Las Vegas recorded by dozens of fans. A website was created at http://thisoneisonus.org/ to keep people up to date on their efforts to create a DVD documenting these shows as a gift to NIN fans. Just before Christmas, Reznor hinted that a "small holiday gift" was in the works; on January 7, 2009, this gift was revealed to be over 400 GB of high definition film footage from thee separate, complete shows of the recently completed tour. "If any of you could find a LINK to that footage I'll bet some enterprising fans could assemble something pretty cool," said Reznor, before adding, "Oh yeah, you didn't hear this from me." Links to torrents of this footage were posted on the message board at nin.com.
So there you have it. Trent Reznor himself was encouraging his fans to download footage of his concerts and make "something pretty cool" out of it. That's good enough for me, especially since this may be the closest thing to an official live release from this tour that we will see.
Now, I don't normally post about videos on this blog, and I don't intend to start now. Fortunately, the hard working folks at thisoneisonus.org have created a professionally mastered audio version of these concerts and made them available for download. The release is entitled Another Version of the Truth, just like the eventual video version will be, and it consists of two main parts: Las Vegas, which was created from a variety of fan audio sources from the Las Vegas show, and The Gift, which was created from the footage supplied by Nine Inch Nails, edited and mixed "to get the best of each show." In total, there is almost 4 and a half hours of music between the two parts, with songs spanning NIN's entire career.
Trent and his entire band are on fire in both shows, making a lot of the songs sound even more aggressive than the studio versions. For the most part the arrangements are left untouched, but there are some nice moments like the extended intros to "Only" and "Echoplex". The biggest exception is "Piggy", which gets reworked as "Ghosts Piggy", coming after a set of songs from Ghosts I-IV; Josh Freese's drumming at the end of this song is amazing. The set lists for both shows are nearly identical, with only a handful of songs differing between the two. As far as sound quality is concerned, Las Vegas sounds a little more distant and has more audience noise, which is to be expected since it was made from fan recordings; The Gift, on the other hand, sounds like a professional live album. I think both recordings certainly have their own merits and both deserve to be listened to.
Another Version of the Truth is currenly available via BitTorrent. I don't believe I've ever covered torrents here, so some explanation may be in order for those unfamiliar with the protocol. Brian's BitTorrent FAQ and Guide covers the topic in more detail than I ever could, so go please go there to read all about it if you need to; if you still have any questions, let me know and I will be happy to answer them. Once you're all set up to handle torrents, you can download either the MP3 version (320kb) or the FLAC version. Neither one of them is a small download - the MP3 version is 623.33 megabytes, while the FLAC version weighs in at 1.76 gigabytes. The time you spend downloading either version will be well worth it, though. Happy listening!
URLs:
http://thisoneisonus.org/
