Concert Review

Nine Inch Nails hammers Houston at career-spanning Toyota Center concert

Nine Inch Nails Houston Concert Toyota Center 2025

Nine Inch Nails performed in Houston on Friday, September 12.

Photo by Channel Purple/Courtesy of Live Nation

Nearly 40 years down the spiral, Rock And Roll Hall of Fame inductees Nine Inch Nails returned to Houston and the Toyota Center on Friday, September 12. NIN was last in Houston in December 2017, where they played a rainy, abbreviated set at the final Day For Night festival at the future POST Houston complex on a stage festooned with strands of VHS tape and stinging coastal rain. The Bayou City had been due for a catharsis.

Now led by twin film score composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, NIN has grown alongside its audience in time. They’ve created some of the best film scores of the past 20 years, from the devastating Gone Girl to Disney’s ethereal Brian Eno-esque Soul soundtrack, not to mention the Oscar-winning companion music for The Social Network. Children of ‘90s NIN fans have even been indoctrinated via the duo’s unlikely Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem score, some of whom were at Toyota Center on Friday night. The band’s forthcoming TRON: Ares soundtrack releases next week, and it's already shaping up to be some of the duo’s best work in years.

Houston has always been an industrially-minded city, which is likely why NIN’s brand of industrial music has always had a special place in its musical DNA. Even the iconic hip-hop DJ Screw seemed to have a little gothic terror floating in his styrofoam cup and the Tone Zone Records spirit in his releases. Generations of Houstonians still pack Numbers in Montrose on a weekly basis to dance to the acts that influenced Reznor, and his face is even painted on the side of the building. The band’s 1995 club show at the Westheimer landmark is spoken of in reverent tones like a visit from the pope.

International electronic act and kindred spirits Boys Noize opened Friday night’s show, with Alexander Ridha’s harsh electro tenderizing the black-clad masses already clutching NIN merch. He even mixed in NIN’s “Down In It” to make the scene twitch.

NIN called the evening to order right before 9 pm with the industrial ballad “Right Where It Belongs” and Reznor alone at the piano on a squared, elevated stage set in the middle of the arena. Reznor then delicately began “Ruiner,” stripped of its armor left with just his voice and some stark synths as band members joined him, finally.

The grim percussive mania of drummer Josh Freese signaled the band’s change of venue to the main stage as “Wish” segued into the high blood pressure Olympics of “March of the Pigs.” Having Freese in the fold has been the best thing to happen to the band in the past two decades, capturing the inherent funkiness in Reznor’s Prince-influenced catalogue.

With the band bathed in sheer curtains, we got a boot stomping evangelical “Heresy” and the trance of “Copy of A” — where the stage production projected several Reznors in militia garb across the fabric.

We’re now 20 years removed from the muscular juggernaut that was 2005’s return-to-form With Teeth wherein Reznor fused the feral lullabies of 1994’s The Downward Spiral with brash low-end and Bush-era dystopia fully ensconced in Bowie’s Berlin-era. Even though NIN’s discography spans decades, it all exists at once in a live setting, outside of any year or perceived era. He’s managed to craft a singular vision even as the collaborators have changed.

Reznor and Ross returned to the b-stage on the arena floor to convene with Boys Noize for “Vessel” from 2007’s Year Zero. The trio then offered up a funked to death and purple-tinged “Closer” and “Sin,” turning Toyota Center into Numbers for 30 minutes.

The scarily prescient “I’m Afraid Of Americans” came next, followed by a rueful “The Hand That Feeds.”

NIN has always had a forward propulsion. There’s no concept of nostalgia, just raw nerves endlessly being rediscovered by fresh ears.

Cue a blistered and oozing “Head Like A Hole.”

There’s a legacy of elegance, though, in what may seem ugly if you’re not tuned in to the NIN frequency. Reznor was just getting us ready.

Cue a hymnal “Hurt.”

SETLIST

B-Stage

Right Where It Belongs
Ruiner
Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now)

Main Stage

Wish
March of the Pigs
Reptile
Heresy
Copy of A
Gave Up

B-Stage (with Boys Noize)

Vessel
Closer
As Alive as You Need Me to Be
Sin

Main Stage

Mr. Self Destruct
Less Than
The Perfect Drug
I’m Afraid Of Americans
The Hand That Feeds
Head Like a Hole
Hurt

concert review nine inch nails

Movie Review

Timothée Chalamet cements star status in new movie Marty Supreme

Courtesy

Timothée Chalamet

In a time when true movie stars seem to be going extinct, Timothée Chalamet has emerged as an exception to the rule. Since 2021 he has headlined blockbusters like the two Dune movies and Wonka, and also earned an Oscar nomination for playing Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown (his second nomination following 2018’s Call Me By Your Name). Now, he’s almost assured to get his third nomination for the stellar new film, Marty Supreme.

Chalamet plays Marty Mauser, a world-class table tennis player living in New York. But reducing Marty to his best skill doesn’t do him justice, as he’s also a motormouth schemer who will do almost anything to achieve his dreams. He doesn’t have any qualms about wooing married women like neighbor Rachel (Odessa A’zion) or actress Kay Stone (Gwyneth Paltrow), or hiding his true ping pong skills to win money in scams with friends like Wally (Tyler the Creator).

Marty is seemingly on the go the entire movie, whether it’s trying to convince Kay’s millionaire husband Milton Rockwell (Kevin O’Leary) to fund his table tennis ambitions; or trying to track down the dog of Ezra (Abel Ferrara), a man he accidentally injures; or trying to avoid the ire of the boss at the shoe store where he works. Just when you think he might slow down, he’s off to the races on another plan or adventure.

Directed by Josh Safdie and written by Safdie and frequent co-writer Ronald Bronstein, the film is an almost continuous blast of pure energy for 2 ½ hours. So many different things happen over the course of the film that the story defies conventional narratives, and yet the throughline of Marty keeps everything tightly connected. His particular type of brash behavior turns much of the film into a comedy as he does and says things that are both shocking and thrilling.

Another thing that makes the movie sing is the fantastic characterization by Safdie and Bronstein. Almost every person who is given a speaking line in the film has a moment where they pop, which speaks to airtight dialogue that the writers have created. Characters will be introduced and then disappear for long stretches of time, and yet because they make such an impression the first time they’re on screen, it’s easy to pick up their thread right away.

Safdie, as he’s done previously with brother Bennie (Uncut Gems), calls on a host of well-known non-actors or people with interesting faces/vibes to inhabit supporting roles, and to a person they are crucial to the film’s success. O’Leary (of Shark Tank fame), rapper Tyler the Creator, director Ferrara, magician Penn Jillette, and fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi each deliver knockout performances. The relative unknowns who play smaller roles are just as impressive, making each beat of the film feel naturalistic.

Leading the way is the powerhouse performance by Chalamet. For one person to believably play both the famously reserved Dylan and also a firecracker like Marty is astonishing, and this role cements Chalamet’s status as his generation’s movie star. A’zion is a rising star who gets great moments as Marty’s on-again/off-again love interest. Paltrow pops in and out of the film, lighting up the screen every time she appears. Fran Drescher as Marty’s mom and Sandra Bernhard as a neighbor also pay dividends in small roles.

Josh Safdie’s first solo directorial effort is unlike any other movie this year, or maybe even this century. Thanks to its breakneck storytelling, a magnificent performance by Chalamet, and countless intangibles that Safdie employs expertly, the film smacks viewers in the face repeatedly and demands that they come back for more.

---

Marty Supreme opens in theaters on December 25.

movies film