It took Nine Inch Nails more than 20 years to play “The Perfect Drug” live, but they finally did it. The track from 1997, which was part of the soundtrack for David Lynch’s Lost Highway, made its live debut at the band’s Colorado’s Red Rocks Amphitheatre.
While being popular among the band’s fans, “The Perfect Drug” never made it to the band’s set list in these past 20+ years. One of the reasons for that is that frontman Trent Reznor wasn’t pleased with the way the song turned out.
“I’m not cringing about it, but it’s not my favorite piece,” – Reznor said back in 2005. “If they said play me, y’know, the top hundred songs you’ve written, that probably wouldn’t be in the top hundred.”
While Reznor probably didn’t change his mind about the song, it is nice to see he is going along with the fans’ wishes. You can check out the live debut of “The Perfect Drug” below.
This performance continued the trend of Nine Inch Nails to play some of the live rarities on their current tour, Cold and Black and Infinite. Earlier on the same tour, the band performed their 1992’s Broken record in full, with the performance including the track “Happiness in Slavery,” which was last played live 23 years ago. So, if you want to catch some of lesser-known Nine Inch Nails songs live, there might not be a better chance than this tour.
