Nine Inch Nails sends fans to downward spiraled drainpipe

On Monday night, I trespassed in Griffith Park, ran from men with flashlights and retrieved a valuable envelope hidden inside a drainpipe.

No, I'm not a secret agent. Just a Nine Inch Nails fan.

To kick off the band's upcoming tour, they are hosting an exclusive concert in Los Angeles on July 19. Spots on the guest list go to the craziest fans, and I'm on it.

The band posted a file to its website with concert tour locations a couple weeks ago that visitors could download and open in the Google Earth software. Last Friday, a mysterious place marker appeared on the map, labeled "under the rock," that pointed to a location in Burbank. Beneath that rock was an envelope giving the lucky discoverers entree to the show.

That event kicked off a viral campaign that puts fans in treasure-hunt scenarios, but with the pressure-cooker timing of an episode of "24." Trent Reznor and Co. have a reputation for these unusual stunts. The band launched an alternate reality game in 2007 for its "Year Zero" album. That adventure sent fans digging through a digital trail of cryptic websites, calling phone numbers and analyzing digital files found on memory sticks in concert venue bathrooms.

Reznor, a Los Angeles resident, has long given special treatment to fans in his home city. He arranged a secret show in April of last year for local fan club members, who were contacted by cellphone and told to meet in Echo Park.

Message boards were buzzing all weekend about the Friday event, as local NIN-heads waited for the second concert ticket treasure hunt. That time came around 7 p.m. Monday when the next marker, titled "in the drainpipe," appeared.

My brother TJ, a 33-year-old hard-core fan who has followed the band across continents to attend shows, was one of the first to see it. "We've got to go," he shouted as I sat bewildered on the couch. "We've got to go right now!"

As he drove down winding back roads, I kept asking why he was breathing so heavily, why he was yelling and why he was driving almost double the speed limit. He told me to shut up and memorize the map. You know how big brothers can be.

When we pulled up to a side entrance at the park, we were greeted by a locked gate and a parked minivan. A sticker adorned the car's rear window that read "NIN." We were at the right place.

TJ veered his car onto the curb, jumped out and started running. As I jogged behind him, I began to understand why my brother has long been obsessed with the industrial rock group. Reznor's constant efforts to provide a surreal fan experience make it easy to get pulled in.

As we neared a split in the road, a man shined his flashlight in our faces. "We found it," he said. But we knew the prize wasn't where they were walking from. We ran past the wannabe saboteurs, and as I began recognizing areas from the satellite images, I felt a burst of adrenaline. I sprinted past TJ and stopped at the spot I had remembered, sweating and gasping for air.

He jumped in the ditch, and using his cellphone as a makeshift flashlight, he reached into the drain.

Jackpot!

As we jumped up and down, celebrating our victory, it was obvious that Reznor had accomplished his goal. Those feelings of excitement and anxiety are the same emotions he aims to put across in his music. And that could explain why fans have been so overwhelmingly receptive to such a bizarre spin on one of the oldest forms of music promotion -- a ticket giveaway.

-- Mark Milian

Photo of Reznor by Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times; photo of TJ's jackpot moment by Mark Milian

Comments

[NIN Fan]

I wouldn't be surprised if the NIN camp stops this now because of you two. This was supposed to be something for the fans and you've turned it into publicity for yourselves to gloat about what you've got. You don't see the other person that won doing this... I hope they take your names off that list, in my opinion, you don't deserve them anymore.

[Julia]

Previous commenter (7/10 @ 2:48):
Chill out. As the author mentioned, he's a fan and his brother is a "hard-core fan who has followed the band across continents to attend shows"--which I'd say is exactly the target audience for this treasure hunt (see: The Year Zero ARG). Nothing about this article sounded like gloating to me; they're just excited, which (as the author also points out) is the whole point. So stop raining on their parade.

[KenRay]

I strongly disagree. Trents campagines are universal. Using the media has been one of Trent's greatest tools to bring his fan base into a tighter global community. I thought it was really entertaining and I am excited to see him perform in SLC, UT. Hell I just bought my tickets from Smithstix, but I can appreciate someone going to these extremes for tickets.

[sam]

what a great idea! that is such an awesome way to reward hardcore fans and get people excited. NIN fan (comment above) should relax. The article isn't doing Trent any harm.

[Bambaata]

That is truly awesome.

I am not really a fan of NIN, but definitely a fan of Trent Reznor's creativity and dedication to his art.

[Fran]

"This was supposed to be something for the fans"

Yeah and they're fans. So? Are you just mad because you didn't get any free tickets? Of course Trent knows that people are going to blog about this. I think that's sort of the point you know. You must've missed about 5 years of viral campaigning and haven't been exposed to how the publicity machine works.

People reading this will think "hey Trent is so awesome" which is the best outcome any promotion can have.

This was posted 2 days ago so there's a very strong chance that either a) all the tickets are gone by now or b) they're planning new locations or even c) that actually not that many people will have read this article yet in which case it doesn't even matter anyway. In this article he even states that he ran into people who already had found the loot. There would have been more.

[Jacques]

NIN Fan your crazy. they were happy about their experience so they wrote an article. to each their own. chill out~

[DV8]

congrats to the guys who found the tickets, and hell they should gloat, if it had been me you better believe id be psyched that i was apart of this 'game'... the whole idea of this hunt, aside from rewarding true fans with free tickets, is to excite people and get a buzz going about nin and their creativity...i think the world should know what these fans did to get their reward, and to be honest id do a lot more than speed and trespass in a park to get two tickets, even though ive already purchased mine for the duluth show in august.

[thelion1856]

this is the coolest band on earth and the only band that knows how to sell records, cheap and on line and sweet. Nuff said.

[newsound]

While other record labels and bands whine about file sharing, Trent Reznor continues to show why he shines. He continues to show any artist who is listening how to thrive in this new digital age. Record labels, distributors and publishers must all be shaking as they realize they can no longer enslave their artists and make the money off a musician's hard work.

[Ben]

So spreading word about something isn't what viral campaigns are about now? You've lost me...

Now there's going to be even more people paying attention to this, meaning more attention for NIN...

[Bexta]

Man, and I thought hiding the USB's in secret squirrel places was cool - that's so awesome

[Hmmmm]

NIN Fan seems a little spiteful/envious. Maybe you wanted the tickets...

[wch_]

pigs we get what pigs deserve

[miles]

This is awesome, I wish more musical acts would commit the time to tease fans like NIN have here. No only does it show interest in it's partitions but a level understanding for the apprehension of their music. NIN fan at the top sounds like the wannabe saboteurs who didn't make the grade.

[Pete]

Wow, that first comment sounds like the guy who got there after the tickets were already gone.

Trent Reznor is a swell dude. Obviously loves his fans, too. More bands need to do more cool things like this.

[evit]

congratz

[dpgc]

If anything this article provides free publicity for NIN. Which is exactly what a band tries to do with a viral campaign like this.

[plong]

What an amazing way to reach out to your fans. A real-life GPS-enabled scavenger hunt? Awesome! I concur with the other posters that these two did no harm to Trent or NIN... in fact, they're only helping to spread the word about how cool this is, and isn't that the point of any viral marketing campaign? ;) Congrats for finding that golden ticket, fellas.

[typerr13@yahoo.com]

@2:48 - you're crazy. this is exactly why reznor did it. it's a marketing/publicity stunt. this story hit digg. music industry execs are going to eat this up.

the face of the music industry is changing and reznor is at the forefront of trying to find new ways to accommodate fans in a digital age.

this is one piece to the puzzle with all of his other projects. (releasing songs online, offering signed promotions, offering free downloads, placing memory sticks with songs in bathrooms in a club). trent has turned himself into one of the most creative promotion/marketing/advertising agents out there.

madison avenue is sure to notice. the next generation of business students will be reading about him in their textbooks.

well done mr reznor.

[Mr Coldheart]

Very cool what Trent is doing to promote to fans BUT I still have to correct the author in that his home town is in Pennsylvania.

Just putting that out there because blogs are read world wide and there's bound to be a hurt PA fan with all this hometown love talk.

[Trevor Reznick]

hey pig, yeah you.

brilliant.

[Mark Milian]

The third marker was posted on the Google Earth feed this afternoon, located in the Campsite of Anza near Anaheim.

Mr. Coldheart, yes, Reznor was born in Pa., but he moved to L.A. more than 15 years ago and lists the city as the band's location on their MySpace page. While he is a Mercer native, he's an L.A. guy now.

[Goob]

Woah. NIN Fan got owned.

[eap]

Mark Milian,
Trent lived in LA when he recorded The Downward Spiral, but then he moved to NOLA and lived there until around the time right before With Teeth came out. So he's really just been living in LA more recently, not for 15 years.