Music that connects with people from different backgrounds is special. If it connects with a musician from a different background, who works in a different genre, that’s really special. Nine Inch Nails, NIN for short, has a sound and feeling that are tangible to the audience as well as to other artists who make different kinds of music. Trent Reznor formed the industrial rock band in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1988, and NIN is still touring today, playing arenas all over the world. Their catalogue consists of 17 albums. Industrial rock fuses industrial music—a genre that makes use of aggressive machine-like sounds—with rock music. The band’s beloved song, “Hurt,” came out in 1994 on their record The Downward Spiral. It touched souls around the globe, and even the one and only Johnny Cash released his own majestic cover of the song. Nine Inch Nails and Cash emerged from very different musical atmospheres, but the song united them. It’s a perfect example of what makes the band so special. This show is part of their Peel It Back tour. —Henry McGrath