CLEVELAND — The homecoming for Nine Inch Nails in Cleveland will have to wait.
The band announced that it is canceling all of its remaining appearances for 2021 due to the uncertainty of COVID-19. That will include their two shows at Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica that were set for September 21 and 23.
"It is with great regret that we are cancelling all NIN appearances for the remainder of this year," the band wrote in a post on social media. "When originally planned, these shows were intended to be a cathartic and celebratory return to live music. However, with each passing day it's becoming more apparent we're not at that place yet. We are sorry for any inconvenience or disappointment and we look forward to seeing you again when the time is right."
Ticket buyers for the September 21 and 23 shows in Cleveland are instructed to refer to their point of purchase for refund information.
As our Ryan Haidet wrote in his profile of the band, Nine Inch Nails began in Cleveland in the late 1980s as a studio project for Trent Reznor but blossomed onstage with his live band during the first Lollapalooza tour in 1991, which found them laying waste to its instruments in the afternoon sun as dismayed fellow musicians and converted fans looked on. The 1994 breakthrough album The Downward Spiral combined the mechanized funk and discordant noise of industrial rock with Reznor’s belief in melody and song structure. It debuted at number two on the Billboard album chart and spawned the Top 40 hit “Closer” — with its promises of animalistic sex as a way of being nearer to God — as well as “Hurt,” later covered by Johnny Cash.
A mud-splattered, star-making performance at Woodstock ’94 delivered Nine Inch Nails to the arena level. A series of carefully wrought tours — including a co-headlining trek with David Bowie in 1995 — followed, accompanied by visuals as transformative as they were simple. In recent years, Reznor’s penchant for futurism has included distributing music for free on the Internet as well as working for Beats Music to find a way to restore value to purchasing music. Nine Inch Nails returned in 2013 with Hesitation Marks and reissued new instrumental versions of The Fragile and With Teeth as exclusive Apple Music streams. The creativity of Trent Reznor has penetrated myriad aspects of the entertainment world. From music to film to management and streaming, NIN continues to be an influential force in our world.
More on Nine Inch Nails' induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: