On a late-fall Sunday evening in Albany, Nine Inch Nails brought their “Further Down the Spiral Tour” to the Knickerbocker Arena (now MVP Arena). The December 4, 1994 performance was notable not just for the opening acts – Marilyn Manson and Jim Rose Circus – but also a show cut short when a fan threw a shoe at the head of NIN drummer, Chris Vrenna.
The second part of Nine Inch Nails’ Self Destruct Tour saw shows in Buffalo and New York City coming on either side of the Albany show, and following the release of the critically acclaimed album The Downward Spiral. With recent performances that summer – not only the legendary mud show at Woodstock 94, but also in Poughkeepsie at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center a few weeks prior on August 3, 1994 – the Albany show was hotly anticipated by grunge loving teens.
And while this show’s openers were Marilyn Manson and Jim Rose Circus, other openers this tour included bands from the grunge era – Hole, The Melvins and Pop Will Eat Itself.
Manson and his band were introduced onto the stage by the Jim Rose Circus, with a lineup including serial killer inspired aliases – Daisy Berkowitz (guitar), Twiggy Ramirez (bass), Madonna Wayne Gacy (keyboard) and Sara Lee Lucas (drums). This was among the first times fans could see the controversial Marilyn Manson live, and while memories of the opening set are fleeting – the 30 minute set likely began close to the ticket time of 7:30pm, with many fans still waiting to get inside – one fan recalls from Manson’s set a vulgar tirade directed at a young woman in the crowd.
Both before, during and especially after Manson’s set, hundreds of fans in seated sections rushed down the aisles past security, packing the floor to nearly uncomfortable levels even before Jim Rose Circus took the stage. The ensuing snarl of bodies on the floor meant the circus – a freak show, really – meant that there were many more eyes on the stage for graphic stunts. The modern-day circus freak show that first made its name at Lollapalooza 1992, had interjections from Rose who kept the crowd on the hook as ringmaster, guiding the captive audience through a series of tricks and stunts taking place across the stage.
Among the acts were swallowing and regurgitating razor blades, smashing a cinder block on a strongman’s chest, ‘eating’ sparks from a grinding machine, and one member of the circus taking a unstrung 1970s tennis racket (smaller than today) and squeezing his entire body through the racket, slowly but surely dislocating appendages and succeeding in the act. For the more adventurous, click here to see what the performance included, but for those in attendance, time has thankfully aided in forgetting some of this set.
Note – I was a week away from turning 17, and still to this day, have only rushed the floor at a concert once. While the Nine Inch Nails performance was as memorable as could be, the Jim Rose Circus interlude has stuck with me for 30 years. I don’t know where my seats actually were for the show, but they sure weren’t on the floor. Of all the times to rush the floor and crowd near the stage…
And for the next 20 minutes or so as the freak show went away and a screen lowered behind Nine Inch Nails’ gear, the anticipation grew steadily for an already GRAMMY-winning band (Best Metal Performance – “Wish”) to play songs from the new album, as well as the previous seven ‘halos‘. What would amount to a 74-minute show due to the aforementioned shoe to the head, was nothing short of memorable, albiet confusing at the end.
The Nine Inch Nails lineup for this tour included frontman Trent Reznor (vocals, guitar, keys), Robin Finck (guitar, keys, backing vocals), Danny Lohner (bass, guitar, keyboards, backing vocals), Chris Vrenna (drums), and James Woolley (keys, programming, backing vocals). With a sepia-toned screen/banner behind the band, projections followed along with the music as themes of darkness, death and generally disturbing imagery were shone, adding a visual layer to a band that drew heavily on imagery in music videos for “Closer” and “Hurt,” in addition to previous videos.
The band went through the setlist (seen below) as they likely did for many shows that tour – a good deal of The Downward Spiral songs, plus some older songs, and the anger-filled anthem “Head Like a Hole” closing the show. It was during this song that someone in the audience threw a shoe (rumored to be a boot, but alas, a sneaker) and hit drummer Chris Vrenna in the head. Presumably, someone threw someone else’s shoe, making it easier to avoid being caught for the offending toss.
Vrenna finished the song, the band left the stage, and a few moments later, an announcement would come over the public address system, saying “The drummer suffered a concussion. The band is unable to continue.” With that, the lights were up and the show was over. Confusion abounded but the crowd was shuffled out towards South Pearl Street, an abrupt ending to an epic evening.
Without a basis for pop-culture shoe-throwing references, this notable tennis shoe toss was relegated to urban legend status, as the incident took place a full three years before Austin Powers coined the phrase “Who throws a shoe, honestly?” and 14 years before an Iraqi journalist threw a shoe at then-President Bush.
On December 17, 1994, the Daily Gazette gave brief mention of the show in the “Spotlight” section of the paper by writer M.L., under the heading “Really Nailed.”
“For Nine Inch Nails drummer Chris Vrenna, the show ends when the shoe hits him in the head. The Nails refused to come back for an encore after their Dec. 4 show at the Knickerbocker Arena when Vrenna was beaned in the noggin by a sneaker thrown by rowdy fans, according to Soo Hyun, a music publicist in New York City.”
It does not seem though that Vrenna had a concussion, but given the circumstances and sudden stopping of the show, giving the audience a reason was paramount at the time.
M.L. continues, “Although the show left a nice bruise on Vrenna’s head, it seems the offending sneaker injured the drummer’s pride more than his body, Hyun said. “There was no damage, it was just a shoe,” Hyun said. “He’s played while bleeding before without any problems.”
The show marked a first for Vrenna, as it was the first time he had been hit while performing on stage by fan throw items. Hyun continued “While fans often chuck objects at the band during their shows, the Knick concert was the first time that Vrenna has been struck while playing. They really expect this kind of stuff to happen.
Luckily, two audience recordings of this show are available here (Sony ECM-155 + Aiwa J505) and here (Sonic Studio DSM6 Mics + Sony TCD-D7). The recordings are decent for the time period, with a little chatter over ambient sections of songs. A close listen to “Head Like a Hole” may indicate when in the song Vrenna was struck – Head, meet Sole – but kept playing til the end.
The memory of the non-encore stands out, and looking back on setlists of the tour, “Closer” and “Something I Can Never Have” were among the songs the crowd missed out on. Still, between rushing the floor, a musical freak, a freak show, and Nine Inch Nails, the night of December 4, 1994 at the Knickerbocker Arena was nothing short of memorable.
While no video footage of the show exists, you can view the Nine Inch Nails performance a few days later at Madison Square Garden, on December 7 and 9, 1994, which shows what the entire show in Albany would have been like, encore and all.
Nine Inch Nails – December 4, 1994 – The Knickerbocker Arena, Albany
Setlist: Pinion. Mr. Self Destruct, Sin, March of the Pigs, Piggy, Reptile, Gave Up, Happiness in Slavery, Eraser, Hurt, The Downward Spiral, Wish, Suck, The Only Time, Down In It, Head Like a Hole
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