We've all got to pay the bills somehow.
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Before there was Trent Reznor, the brooding muso mastermind behind Nine Inch Nails, there was Trent Reznor, the brooding muso mastermind… stood behind cheesy ’80s pop outfit Slam Bamboo.
The chipper and long-forgotten band had a vision of brightly coloured suits, Jaunty dance moves and big ’80s vibes. However, touring keyboard player Mr. Reznor was clearly having none of it. Instead, Trent looks spectacularly out of place, head down, dressed in his hallmark all-black outfit with leather jacket firmly in place, proving it’s not just his music which has stood the test of time.
Jump to 50 seconds to see Trent’s starring moment, although we warn you that if you skip through you won’t get the full benefit of just how brilliantly jarring his appearance here is. While you’re watching the video, for extra ‘WTF’ please keep in mind that this footage was recorded while Trent was writing NIN’s debut album, 1989’s Pretty Hate Machine, and try to imagine what he might be thinking about during this performance.
“This band has everything it takes to make it big,” beams the presenter. Unfortunately for Slam Bamboo, time had other ideas. In fact, if you look up Slam Bamboo on Wikipedia, it redirects to the Wiki page for Trent Reznor. And if that isn’t the sickest burn on the internet, then we don’t know what is.
Oh man, Slam Bamboo frontman Scott Hanson must be so humiliated about their lowly touring member going onto be a mega star, right? Wrong. Fair play to Scott, if you look at whose YouTube channel these videos are uploaded on… you’ll see he’s the one owning his cringe-worthy but endearing TV appearance to give us this unlikely insight into pre-NIN Trent Reznor. Big respect.
BONUS: There’s also an interview with Slam Bamboo from the same TV appearance during which the interviewer throws in “a plug for Trent back there” for being a great guy. It kind of feels like even as a touring member, the spotlight was always searching for Trent Reznor.
