Nine Inch Nails performed a blistering rendition of Joy Division’s 1978 track “Digital” and debuted their new song, “Ahead of Ourselves,” during a June 16 performance in Las Vegas at the Joint located in the Hard Rock Hotel, Pitchfork reports.
“Digital” was originally released by seminal post-punk icons Joy Division on a double 7” EP titled A Factory Sample. The track was also the final song performed by Joy Division on May 2, 1980, during a recorded show at Birmingham University shortly before the suicide of singer Ian Curtis. The entire Birmingham concert was later released on Still in 1981.
Nine Inch Nails are currently playing a handful of shows ahead of their “Cold and Black and Infinite” tour this fall. During the group’s first show of the season on June 13, they took the opportunity to play tracks they haven’t played in years including Gary Numan’s “Metal,” Bowie’s “I’m Afraid of Americans,” and “I Do Not Want This,” from the group’s Downward Spiral album.
“Ahead of Ourselves” comes off the upcoming NIN album Bad Witch, due for release June 22. During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Reznor spoke about the new album’s message, saying, “I think we’re in a f—d up situation where the world is off-axis. Originally, [Bad Witch] was going to be an even more extreme version of Add Violence. And what it wound up being was a much more pessimistic [message] where we’re not living in a simulation and there’s not a convenient external thing we can blame this on — at our core, [humans] are just an accident, and when fully realized we will just exterminate ourselves, and we aren’t these enlightened creatures.”
Check out NIN performing Joy Division’s “Digital” and “Ahead of Ourselves” live.
Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat
Leave a Comment