A stoked crowd takes in Friday's NIN performance at Hayden Homes Amphitheater in Bend.

A year ago, I saw pop superstar John Legend perform at what was then known as the Les Schwab Amphitheater in Bend, and I wrote this:

“For several months, amphitheater officials have said the venue’s expansion will lead to higher-profile acts and larger productions. Legend’s show was an example of what they’re talking about and, hopefully, a peek at the possibilities in future seasons.”

One of those possibilities came to fruition Friday night as long-running industrial rock act Nine Inch Nails rolled into what is now known as Hayden Homes Amphitheater, bringing with them the second-largest crowd of the season (behind only country star Jon Pardi) and truckloads of equipment needed to put on a visual production that wouldn’t have been anywhere close to possible on the amphitheater’s old stage.

It’s tempting, in fact, to just convert this article into a review of NIN’s dazzling light show, which featured all the usual dancing and pulsing strobes, plus super-cool 3D effects using both lights and shadows and, during a blistering version of “Wish,” what I think were the brightest and most disorienting flashes of light I’ve seen in 30 years of attending concerts. It felt like my eyeballs were being stung by a jellyfish, and it was the first time in my life I’ve felt like I had to shut my eyes completely at a show. (These are compliments, by the way.)

There was music, too, of course. With NIN founder and frontman Trent Reznor front and center in his usual pose — bent at the waist, clutching the mic as if it’s the only thing keeping him upright — the band played several of their best-known songs, starting with the creepy punk savagery of “March of the Pigs” and ending with a beautiful rendition of “Hurt” that seemed to hang for an extra beat in the chilly High Desert air.

In between, the set was a series of loud and fast peaks separated by oceans of dark, glitchy electro-rock. “Sanctified” used a big, menacing beat to build tension that was ultimately left unresolved, while “Every Day is Exactly the Same” juxtaposed a churning low end with a chiming (and charming) keyboard line. “The Becoming” squirmed and squiggled noisily until it reached its pretty guitar-strum coda, and the burbling bullet-train beat behind “Copy Of A” felt like the soundtrack for data traveling along a high-speed fiber cable.

The large, black-clad crowd went nuts for “Closer” and “Head Like A Hole” and “The Perfect Drug,” of course, and each of those performances were thrilling. But my favorite part of the show was the encore, in which “Hurt” was preceded by two songs — “Somewhat Damaged” and “The Day the World Went Away” — that saw the band explode into a million shards of industrial noise, then pick up the pieces and coalesce into a thick, satisfying, almost symphonic shoegaze groove.

That 10-minute stretch showcased the impressive range of a band whose catalog I, admittedly, have never properly explored. And the whole show gave me a new appreciation for the power and songs of Nine Inch Nails, nearly three decades after “The Downward Spiral” dominated a couple of my closest friends’ listening habits in high school. Oh well … I suppose it’s better to be (way) late to the party than to never arrive.