From Woodstock to Vancouver: A Family Story in Nine Inch Nails

“Take the skin and peel it back.

Now doesn't that make you feel better?”

– Trent Reznor, “March of the Pigs”

My father was a reluctant participant in our trip to Woodstock ’94. His contemporaries may have been practicing peace and love at Max Yasgur's farm in 1969, but he was musically stuck in an earlier era. The more modern acts at the Woodstock sequel were even more foreign to him. Still, he made the most of it, even claiming a patch of land for three generations of Petersens—including my daughter, just shy of two years old.

On Saturday, we found a good spot at the North Stage where we could watch the bands without getting caught in the crush of the crowd. My Dad enjoyed Joe Cocker and Blind Melon, but Cypress Hill pushed him past his comfort zone. We split up—my parents went back to camp, my daughter and I to the South Stage. After enduring a downpour and catching Primus, I headed back to see Nine Inch Nails (NIN). The crowd and mud made it impossible with a toddler in tow, so I returned to camp to leave her with my Mom and Dad.

My parents were not at the campsite and did not return until after NIN had played through their hour and 15-minute set. My parents had gotten dinner and decided to watch a little bit of NIN, purely out of curiosity. The band, so different from anything my Dad listened to, completely grabbed him. They stayed for the whole set, and he continued to follow them after that weekend. My Mother would later laugh about him pulling up in the driveway blasting NIN from his car.

That Woodstock set has since been called “career-defining.” It was a mud-soaked, chaotic scene, fueled by pure energy. Last month in Vancouver, I finally got my chance to see the band live.

Trent Reznor, now decades removed from that reckless night, opened alone at a piano on the B stage in the middle of the arena, bathed in simple white lighting. The stripped-down arrangements revealed the raw emotion beneath the noise. There were moments where you could have heard a pin drop.

Reznor was joined by his bandmates, minus newly returned drummer Josh Freese, who gradually reintroduced the defining industrial sound back into the arrangements. After this four-song crescendo, they were joined from the main stage by Freese, who quickly showed why is widely considered one of the best drummers for hire in the business. Later in the show, he stole the spotlight with a blistering solo during “The Perfect Drug.”

Where Woodstock was chaos, this show was precision. The staging looked simple but was cutting-edge and constantly evolving. A scrim in front of the stage was especially inventive, as it made the band seem like they were playing inside a digital world. At times, the night was more an art installation than a rock concert.

Reznor himself has changed, too. Once a brooding presence, he now borders on playful, even a bit goofy, letting the songs carry the weight. At one point, he noted Trump’s feud with Canada and quipped, “We love it here… we may be trying to move up here pretty soon,” before launching into David Bowie’s “I’m Afraid of Americans.”

And then came “Hurt,” one of Reznor’s most commercially successful songs but also among his most mellow. After the thunder of “Head Like a Hole,” the song’s fragility was jarring. A chorus of 19,000 voices filled the arena, each attaching their own meaning. For me, it was my son’s performance of the song at my father’s funeral. The circle was complete—from the muddy fields of Woodstock to this quiet, communal moment in Vancouver.

As the song ended with its loud explosion of noise, the curtain dropped, strobes blazed, and the NIN logo glowed. No encore, no convention—just emotion. The same force that first grabbed my father’s attention in 1994 on a field in Saugerties, New York.

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Carl Petersen is a proud father of five adult children, including two daughters on the severe end of the Autism spectrum. A passionate advocate for special education, he ran as a Green Party candidate for the LAUSD School Board. Renowned education advocate Dr. Diane Ravitch has praised him as “a valiant fighter for public schools”. Recently, Carl relocated to the State of Washington, where he is embracing his role as “Poppy” to two grandsons. You can explore his insights and perspectives through his blogs at www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com.