As a rule, Nine Inch Nails don’t play venues like the Apollo. They’ve worn various guises over the years; industrial metal upstarts on Pretty Hate Machine , nihilistic alt-rockers on The Downward Spiral , reflective impressionists on The Fragile.
But the one thing that’s always been true of them is that their live shows are sufficiently spectacular that they have to happen in an arena setting, like when they played across town at what’s now the AO Arena as part of their farewell tour in 2009. Or as they did when they made their comeback in 2014.
And yet, here we are. For their first gig in Manchester in eight years, Trent Reznor’s men make an exceedingly rare return to a theatre setting, their first time at the Apollo since February of 2007.
