Live: And All That Could Have Been, Reznor’s first effort at a live album, truly captures the concert experience, while providing a fair representation of Nine Inch Nails’ wide-ranging discography. The album begins abruptly with the hard-hitting "Terrible Lie," and draws from four other old tracks before reaching songs from The Fragile. When listening to the album from start to finish, it flows remarkably well, suggesting that Reznor did not sacrifice the full concert experience in order to include all of their most popular songs.

From the most euphoric moments of "The Great Below" to the intense, climactic "Head Like A Hole," And All That Could Have Been portrays a more mature Nine Inch Nails. In a departure from previous studio work, Reznor relies on a full band to perform these 16 live tracks. The band consists of Reznor, Robin Finck, Danny Lohner, Charlie Clouser and Jerome Dillon.

With the occasional help from Lohner, Clouser does an incredible job of "filling in the gaps" with his army of pre-programmed keyboards. Amazingly, Clouser reproduces the full range of synthetic sounds that can be found on Nine Inch Nails’ complex studio recordings. Of course, there are variations on some of the tracks, as the songs have been adjusted for live performance. Reznor commented on the evolution of his songs in a recent press release, "A lot of the songs have really mutated since their inception: the Pretty Hate Machine tunes have toughened up and turned into better arranged songs, while the songs from The Fragile have become a bit less delicate."

Most importantly, And All That Could Have Been reveals an uninhibited Reznor. The band spent an ample amount of time rehearsing and playing in Europe before they even began the U.S. tour. So, the deliberate and calculated Nine Inch Nails’ sound. which comes across strongly on their studio work, is represented on this album, not through meticulous editing, but through the amount of effort that went into the preparation of the Fragility tour. With more confidence, Reznor is able to focus on the performance rather than the accuracy of his songs. As a result, even the slow, quiet songs like "The Frail" are just as chilling as the studio versions. Unlike many live albums that are simply thrown together, And All That Could Have Been captures the raw emotion of Nine Inch Nails’ live show, while including a comprehensive representation of their work -- the perfect addition to their discography.

Those lucky enough to pickup a copy of the double CD deluxe edition received both And All That Could Have Been and Still. Perhaps the perfect compliment to the stadium-rock sound of And All That Could Have Been, Still features four old Nine Inch Nails tracks, one new vocal track, and four new instrumentals, all recorded live in a stripped-down fashion. The deconstructed nature of Still reveals the core competency of Nine Inch Nails songs like "The Becoming," which you would have never imagined could be pulled off in an acoustic performance. The intimate setting of Still presents a more vulnerable Reznor, and highlights his roots as a classically trained pianist. Even without the trademark synthetic Nine Inch Nails’ sound, Reznor achieves an incredible dynamic range and demands full attention from the listener.

The highly anticipated DVD version of Live: And All That Could Have Been expands on Nine Inch Nails’ powerful live performance. Unhappy with the professional concert film on the Downward Spiral tour, Reznor decided to hand out mini DV cameras to various members of the crew. Since the entire DVD was captured with home video cameras, they were able to use realistic angles -- ranging from the stage view to the middle of the pit -- to portray the intensity of Nine Inch Nails’ live show. Even more impressive, the footage was edited on Macintosh home computers with retail software. The vivid lighting and towering rectangular LCD screens (which displayed footage created by the famous graphic designer David Carson) provide spectacular visual elements to greatly enhance the music.

I was lucky enough to catch Nine Inch Nails on their Fragility v2.0 tour in Dallas, Texas on May 23, 2000. It was my first time seeing Nine Inch Nails live, and I was thoroughly impressed. I can say with conviction that both the Live: And All That Could Have Been CD and DVD do a remarkable job of capturing the energy of their live show. Nine Inch Nails fans have recently been inundated with new material, and they should enjoy it while it lasts. Before long, Reznor will be holed up in the studio for an unpredictable amount of time.