Mud. Noise. The throwing of mic stands; and of fits. This is how Nine Inch Nails met the masses. Yeah, so many of us knew all about them, and their industrial pop nihilism, already. But Woodstock 94, with its 350,00 sweaty moshing kids, and millions of TV viewers, introduced Trent and co. to everyone else. They did it for the money, this massive corporate concert. The mud, that was an accident. But going out on stage caked head-to-steel-toe in the same brown dirt the crowd had been sliding around in all day seemed to signify something. This music, this band, which would have been considered too weird just a few years prior, was now of the moment. Soon, the chorus, “I want to fuck you like an animal,” would be a hit on MTV.
Woodstock 94 remains one of NIN’s signature performances, and the epicenter of the 90s industrial music revolution. And Trent’s dirty laundry? It’s in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame.
– Liisa Ladouceur
