Hey, pigs! All of our dreams practically came true when Nine Inch Nails announced in January that the band was hitting the road for the Peel It Back world tour in 2025. (“Practically,” because some of us are still awaiting that new album announcement.)
It didn’t take long after the news arrived for fans to start speculating as to who might open for the Grammy-winning band, who hasn’t released a proper NIN album since March 2020’s surprise drops of the instrumentals Ghosts V: Together and Ghosts VI: Locusts — and going farther back, to 2018’s Bad Witch, if we’re talking music with lyrics. Potential openers that were floated on forums such as Reddit have ranged from the industrial (Health, Youth Code) to synth-pop(Gary Numan) to dance/electronic (Boy Harsher). But it was electro-house veteran Boys Noize — Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ Challengers soundtrack collaborator — who NIN revealed in March had landed the coveted gig.
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But what discussion of the Peel It Back Tour ahead of its June 15 launch in Dublin would be complete without a massive “Wish” list of tracks fans are hoping to hear live? With an impressive catalogue that includes 10 studio albums (plus three EPs, a live set and multiple film soundtracks) since 1989’s Pretty Hate Machine, that’s a heck of a lot of hits and fan-favorite deep cuts to consider fitting into a set.
That said, NIN might’ve offered some not-so-subtle hints about where the focus may be. After all, the critically lauded The Downward Spiral marked its 30th anniversary last year, and the name of this tour comes from the lyrics off the album’s lead single, “March of the Pigs,” so it wouldn’t be a surprise if the setlist was TDS heavy. (Perhaps the 14-track album will even be played front to back? It’s not exactly a pie-in-the-sky wish, since NIN performed the Broken EP from beginning to end at several shows during its 2018 tour, a year after the 1992 release marked its 25th anniversary.) Or maybe given Reznor’s harsh criticisms during the first Trump Administration, things will take a political bent, with a heavier-than-expected focus on 2007’s Year Zero. With the band’s penchant for regularly changing up the setlist from night to night, who knows what fans will be treated to!
But for the sake of discussion, let’s assume TDS will not be played in full. So what will make it to the stage while other worthy songs are set aside to fit into the allotted time for what could be a best-of trek? With the tour kickoff quickly approaching, nothing can stop us now from coming up with our dream setlist.
