Nine Inch Nails: Beside You In Time (2007)

not horrible nor great

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Filmed during a particularly productive period in Trent Reznor's career, "Beside You In Time" is Nine Inch Nails in its leanest and meanest state. Culled from footage shot during the band's 2006 winter tour in support of the "With Teeth" album, the hour and a half set is as heavy on the hits as it is on intoxicating imagery and unmatched intensity. Truly, the intention is to capture lightning in a bottle -- a band firing on all cylinders with an amazing stage show to boot -- and to that end, it is a smashing success.More than anything, though, "Beside You In Time" is a rarity amongst concert videos in that it is just about flawless in its presentation. Somehow, the chaos of a Nine Inch Nails show translates well onto the home video format, placing you front and center with the band. Not only does it look good, but it also sounds phenomenal as well. You could close your eyes and enjoy the performances just as well. Each and every band member is heard loud and clear, unveiling new parts to well-worn songs and bringing much of "With Teeth" to life with appropriate bite and intensity.Of course, it would be cutting the production short without mentioning the professionalism and unbridled enthusiasm from a clean and sober Reznor. Plowing through the set with vigor and intensity, the frontman is in the best shape of his career here. Perhaps inspired by the energy of his all-star bandmates in Josh Freese, Aaron North, Jeordie White (aka Twiggy Ramirez) and Alessandro Cortini, there is never a moment where you feel he is going through the motions, even as he makes his way through the admittedly over-played "Closer" and "Head Like a Hole." Likewise, performances of the likes of "Hurt" and the under-rated "Right Where It Belongs" give the impression that there is just as much passion and emotion put into these performances as ever before.As if the concert footage isn't enough (it really is), there's a number of special features to dig through as well. First off, there's hand-held footage of five songs from the following summer tour which features a different stage set-up as well as a few lesser heard numbers such as "Somewhat Damaged" and "Non-Entity." Next, there are three performance videos pulled from a 2005 rehearsal set that recalls the spontaneous insanity of the "March of the Pigs" video, showing the band is as intense with or without a big production to back them up. Rounding out the video footage are two music videos: "The Hand That Feeds" and "Only." The latter being directed by David Fincher (who incidentally helped Trent work his way to an Oscar) is certainly worth having just for posterity's sake as it is by far and away one of the cooler videos of the '00s. Finally we have a discography section and a comprehensive photo gallery, which leaves us at just about everything but the kitchen sink.While it's true that seeing the band in the flesh would be ideal, "Beside You In Time" offers the next best thing. Since Nine Inch Nails currently remains dormant (though Reznor promises he has time penciled in for 2012 to resume work on new material), this snapshot of the band is a great way to relive the glory of one of rock's most creative and intense voices. Not only is it head and shoulders above most concert videos, but it more than lives up to the high standards set by Reznor's studio work. Your Nine Inch Nails collection simply is not complete without it.

Nine Inch Nails – Beside You in TimeFirst off, I want to say this is the only Nine Inch Nails DVD I've ever seen so in comparison to the band's other DVDs, I don't know how if fares. On its own though it's a great DVD with some stellar performances. Trent shows why his group his one of the best live groups out there with his intense and relentless energy. I should also mention this DVD is composed of the With Teeth North American Winter Tour.Sound Quality:The sound quality is great for the most part. Trent sounds more angst filled than ever. He pours so much emotion into every song and it never sounds artificial. Especially on songs like Terrible Lie and Burn . He sounds just as good live as any he does on any of his studio albums. He rarely improvises, but when he does it's always welcome. The backing vocals sound surprisingly good as well. They never take away from the original sound. They actually add a great deal into certain songs like Head like a Hole . All the instruments can be heard well as well. Sometimes the guitar seems a little overpowering, but that's probably to expect since the With Teeth album had a lot of driving guitar. My biggest gripe is probably that some of the cool electronic effects can't be heard as well live as they do normally. For example at the end of Terrible Lie we can barely pick up on those ending sound effects. The same goes for Wish . However this is very common for live shows so I can't complain too much. Overall the sound is pretty dang good.Visuals:The visual is pretty good. There is always a great deal of flashing and lighting going on. It's enough to give some a seizure at times, but never too distracting. We can always see the band members and the camera is never hyperactive. While there isn't a huge amount of on screen footage there is enough, and it always comes at the right time. For example at the beginning of Eraser, with the absence of vocals we are left to watch some cool visuals. Also during Right Where it Belongs we see some pretty gruesome but interesting footage as well. However like I said it is not shown on most of the tracks. My only problem was the crowd was not shown enough. Personally one of my favorite aspects of live DVDs is seeing the huge crowd. For most of the show we only see a small portion, although we do see some brief glimpses of the entire crowd. This issue is most likely due to the fact that the venue is so dark.Performance:What can I say? Nine Inch Nails is one of the most well respected live groups out there, and this is no exception. Trent is so amazingly consistent with his emotion. He sings every song like he's singing to the entire world. I mean he's probably performed Closer over ten thousand times but we wouldn't know. The other band members get in on the fun too though. The guitarist Aaron North throws around equipment like the band has an endless supply of funds (which they probably do.) And any drummer knows the amount of energy Josh Freese brings to the table during a live show. While Nine Inch Nail's music isn't the best to showcase this beast of a percussionist we still experience his intensity just fine. Everyone does an outstanding job performing and that's all that can really be said.Features:There are some pretty cool features on this DVD. We get a couple extra live songs from the Summer Tour which just adds more to the bag. We also get to see a rehearsal of Every Day is Exactly the Same and Love is not Enough which are O.K. but not as enjoyable as the live renditions. There's a cool photo gallery and this feature called "Body of Work" that gives little samples of all the halos put out by the group. The best features are probably the addition of the Only and The Hand that Feeds music videos. These are two of Trent's more poppy (but better) songs and Only has a particularly good music video to accompany it. One thing I wished to have seen is some interviews or behind the scenes footage instead of those rehearsals which are just sort of like a lesser version of the live songs. Not bad though.Overall:So in conclusion, like most live DVDs, this is a must have for die hard fans. Everything is great and the group puts on a great show. The features were a little lacking but not bad. Even if you own another live DVD of the group I would still recommend this because there are some pretty entertaining performances from the With Teeth album. Any Nine Inch Nails fan should this add this to their growing collection.Superb Tracks:Terrible Lie, Burn, Eraser, Right Where it Belongs, Only, The Big Come Down, Hurt, Closer

This was a great concert DVD, but at the same time, some of it seems like it's already been done before. The fact of the matter is, the version of "Closer" performed during this concert is almost the same as the version performed on the And All That Could Have Been tour, aside from the additional expletive. However, the band manages to kick a good amount of their line-up in high gear. Beside You In Time has one of the best live versions of "Something I Can Never Have" that I've ever seen. Also, his new material seems to have a new life that you didn't hear on the With_Teeth album, most notably in "Love Is Not Enough" and "The Line Begins To Blur." In addition to this, the concert isn't as much of a blur of metal and rage you'd think it might be. There's a good variety of songs here, just what you might expect to see on a Greatest Hits album. It's not all dull-sounding, like And All That Could Have Been. As lively as the hard rock songs are, the ballads like "Something I Can Never Have," "Right Where It Belongs," and "Hurt" are just as vivid. All in all, this concert DVD is nothing new, especially in the way of concert DVDs. At the same time, with the band kicking it up in high-gear, it's a good choice to get, whether you're a NIN enthusiast or just an average fan.

2001's And All That Could Have been was the first concert film released by Nine Inch Nails. It was a well-done look at their live shows. However, it was cheaply filmed- Rob Sheridan used a series of Mini DV Camera- and poorly edited. Instead of filming one concert, it was many concerts spliced together to look like one. However, Beside You In Time is a much more polished film. This is only two concerts, which pretty much split the DVD. One in El Paso, and one in Oklahoma City. Instead of Mini-DV the concert is filmed in Hi-Def, making every little detail from the colors of the backdrop to the sweat on Trent Reznor's forehead stand out vibrantly. Rob Sheridan has an eye for good angles. The camera always seems to be in the perfect place at the perfect time, and all of the footage is masterfully edited together. There are no continuity errors like in And All That Could Have Been, no, Beside You In Time is fluid. Also, the sound production is absolutely Top-Notch, my surround sound system revealed every little detail in the mix. This is a snapshot of NIN at their best, and shouldn't be missed by any person with even a passing interest in Nine Inch Nails.