Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails threw down an impressive show — against an epic lighting display — at Red Rocks Amphitheatre on Tuesday night. Photos by Laurie Scavo.

Let’s be open about this. I’ve seen Nine Inch Nails more times than I care to count. I’m a fan from “Pretty Hate Machine” on. And I remember saving up my freshman-year lunch money – going hungry during the school day – to buy what later became one of my favorite E.P.s of all time, “Broken.”

The argument could be made that I’m the worst person to review their shows. Or the best. Whatever. Here are some of the thoughts that ran through my head as frontman Trent Reznor and his new/old band slayed Red Rocks Amphitheatre on Tuesday night.

1. A concert’s first song sets the tone for the entire show, this we know. And holy hell. Reznor’s unforgiving “1,000,000” killed it Tuesday night. You could call it a return to form – sounding like “With Teeth” and before that “The Downward Spiral” with its distorted, squealing guitars – or you could call it Reznor still bringing the pain nearly 20 years into his band’s career.

2. The bad news about the song is that the chorus is a little too close to one of my favorites, “Survivalism.” A little bit. Think not? Listen to them back to back – something I did the morning after the show. It’s there.

3. The first couple songs were mere hints at the power of the current light show NIN is touring with. The band has long been known to employ the most expensive and cutting-edge lighting technology. I remember seeing them touring with David Bowie at the old McNichols Arena when I was in college in the late-’90s, and even then, Reznor’s hydraulic-mounted lighting rigs were awe-inducing.

The current set-up involved multiple video screens and some trippy, psychedelic flood lights. We were only able to shoot the first couple songs, so that’s what you see here in Laurie Scavo’s epic pictures. But it got better. I took some video on my camera, but YouTube does it no justice, so I’m not even going to waste your time.

Just go see the band sometime, and you’ll get it.

4. We were surprised and psyched that “March of the Pigs” came so early in the set. The song is still one of the best in his live repertoire, and it served as an energetic lead-in to “Closer,” the “f—k-you-like-an-animal” song that broke Reznor to a larger audience in the ’90s.

I could go two entire lifetimes without ever hearing “Closer” again – and the same thing goes for “Hurt,” which got love later Tuesday in the encore. Both songs, as great as they are, were ruined for me via incessant radio play – not to mention the fact that they were both co-opted by ridiculous meatheads at my high school. (Suddenly our little underground secret was an anthem in football locker rooms?) Oh well. Reznor deserved fame – and it came at the expense of those two songs losing the intimacy they once owned.

5. Back to the lights – but this time, they’re enhancing the instrumental tracks from the recent release “Ghosts I-IV.” On the drive up to Red Rocks, I silently wondered if Reznor and his band – which includes old-school guitarist Robin Finck (seen below) – would take on many of the instrumentals from “Ghosts,” a sprawling record that is my least favorite of his.

Sure enough, they did. Although it’s fair to say they wouldn’t have worked as well as they did without the help of the mammoth video screen. For most of the instrumentals, the screen was lowered to the ground and the band would either play in front of it or behind it – always lit from the right direction to make the most impact. It was lovely, powerful even. And it was a smart move on the band’s part. This crowd’s unconditional love could only be pushed so far.

6. While Reznor avoided certain albums – including my favorite, ahem, “The Fragile” – he paid solid love to others, including “Broken” and “The Downward Spiral.” He took from the latter with a penetrating “Piggy,” a song that had the bass player on a stand-up and Reznor playing a tambourine and marimba. And “Broken’s” piercing “Give Up” was possibly the greatest highlight of the show for some – while others raised their hands in appreciation of “Wish,” from the same E.P.

7. The show’s encore was solid, with a deafening “Reptile” – Finck’s guitars are back! – an honest “Hurt” and a thoughtful, well-crafted “In This Twilight.” But the couple songs that came at the end of the set were more ruinous. “Terrible Lie” is still an incredible live addition to their sets, and “Down In It” – with Finck singing the back-ups on “I used to be somebody” – was gleefully destructive and reminiscent of the band’s thrashing shows in the ’90s.

And then came “Survivalism,” which is possibly the greatest song Reznor will ever write. With its stilted rhythms and deviant plot, the song is such a post-industrial, pop-oriented jam. It’s a song that makes clear the fact that Reznor is still having a blast. And given that he went through some pretty gloomy, self-destructive times, it’s refreshing to see an artist emerge from the dark, still creating art worthy of such a large audience.

Ricardo Baca is the pop music critic at The Denver Post and the co-editor of Reverb.

Laurie Scavo is a Denver photographer and a regular contributor to Reverb.

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