Nine Inch Nails And All that Could Have Been DVD
Recently I read 2022 marks the 20th anniversary of And All that Could Have Been, the concert DVD that chronicled the Nine Inch Nails Fragility tour during the summer of 2000, a concert I attended at its stop in Dallas. This has personal significance for me as it was my first NIN show, and contains one of the most memorable concert experiences I have had: the visually intense medley in the middle of the setlist of La Mer, the Great Below, and the Mark Has Been Made. We had decent seats. Not lawn, but not pit, center stage. There were a myriad of lighting effects and intense auditory bombast right from the start, from the band and the crowd, but none of it stands out as clearly in my memory as those three songs. As the band tore through the sonic rage of Wish three massive vertical screens slowly tilted from horizontal above the band to facing the audience behind the band. During the song they didn’t do much. They mimicked the blue and red flashing of the other stage lights during the song, then once they were in position, looming behind the stage, they erupt into columns of flashing orange light during the thrashing end of the song.
Nine Inch Nails And All the Could Have Been DVD gatefold sleeve art and design.
At the conclusion of Wish all other stage lights had faded out and the three massive bars of orange switch to blue. There is a pause, and then the piano introducing La Mer. As the song plays the light on the columns changes subtly and it becomes clear that the three columns are actually a massive screen divided into thirds, and as has become customary for most Nine Inch Nails performances, there are visuals that complement and are synchronized with the music. Once I realized what was happening, I got chills, a feeling that persists to this day any time I watch the DVD. I can pinpoint the beginning of my zealous adoration of the live music experience to that moment.
Inner gatefold and DVD art and design.
Another reason I keep returning to this concert DVD is because it is partly responsible for me wanting to pursue the dream of filmmaking. Before And All that Could Have been came out filmmaking was a lofty aspiration like becoming an astronaut or a Formula 1 pilot. The 90’s had been the decade of the independent filmmaker operating outside of the confines of the Hollywood studio system. Still, considering the professional equipment used and the specialized skillsets required, the prospect of making my own films seemed out of reach. Then I read an interview with Trent Reznor where he described how they produced And All that Could Have Been entirely with consumer grade video gear and edited it on their personal laptops. Suddenly, at least one major hurdle, had been utterly destroyed. Of course, this didn’t mean I had the money for the equipment, but the gear required was within reach. It was possible. This doesn’t mean much in 2020 when most of us have a 4K video camera in our phone, but at the turn of the century it was a revelation.
One of the many menu screens.
As for the concert DVD, with the exception of it being in the old 4:3 aspect ratio, it still holds up. Few bands curate a concert experience like Nine Inch Nails, and And All That Could Have Been is a solid document of the band touring after the release of what many consider their best album. Also, in true DVD form, there are plenty of extra features and hidden easter eggs, including, my favorite, a static wide shot of the three-song medley mentioned above.