Sixteen years ago today (5/8/09), Nine Inch Nails kicked off their 25-date NIN|JA 2009 tour at the Cruzan Amphitheatre (now called the iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre) in West Palm Beach, Florida, with some notable live debuts and hits.

The tour was a co-headlining collab with Jane's Addiction where someone cleverly deemed the thing NINJA, which was cool. But it was also billed as a farewell of sorts for live music from Trent Reznor et al, which was the opposite of cool. And indeed, NIN would take a long, four-year break from gigging when NIN|JA ended.

Also on the bill was Tom Morello's Street Sweeper.

NIN's Cruzan gig opened with the B-side, "Home," setting the tone that something wicked was about to go down... in a good way.

Other than on the flip side of the "The Hand That Feeds" single, or on an import of the LP or as a bonus track, "Home" wasn't all that easy to find nor top of mind for many concertgoers.

Indeed after this tour, NIN have played "Home" fewer than 10 times. In many ways it was an unusual appetizer to the dark feast to come.

"Home" was followed by the aggressive "Somewhat Damaged," "Last," and the Beavis and Butthead fave, "March of the Pigs."

Butthead: "I wonder what that drummer is listening to."

Beavis: "He's probably listening to Pantera."

Before the halfway point in the show NIN live debuted two covers from heroes of theirs, Gary Numan's "Metal" and David Bowie's "I'm Afraid of Americans."

Speaking of B-sides, It just so happens that "Metal" was the B-side of Numan's smash 1979 hit "Cars" from his debut solo LP.

It also contains this lyric which may have been why Reznor thought it'f pair nicely with the Bowie cover:

I need my treatment it's tomorrow they send me / Singing I am an American / Do you?

Trent and the lads must have loved what they heard that night because they ended up covering it 45 more times.

One of those times was a few months after this show. While in London, Trent had Gary join him on stage to perform "Metal" together with NIN.

Before they rock it out, Trent said, "back in that time when I was trying to figure out what Nine Inch Nails was going to be about, it was someone that was vitally important to me, it was a huge inspiration, and it is with great pleasure and honor I present to you Gary Numan."

The man who gave us The Pleasure Principle would go on to perform with NIN 19 times and the band would cover three of his tunes over their career.

As good as the Gary Numan cover was, the Bowie banger was better, in part because Trent had remixed "I'm Afraid of Americans" for Bowie's Earthling maxi-single release on October 14, 1997.

The Thin White Duke liked the mix so much he used it on the song's music video and it appears on not just the remix EP but also the Best of Bowie compilation.

You can hear Trent singing in the back of this mix, particularly in the "God is an American" portion at the end.

Plus he plays a co-starring role in the video as the creepy American Bowie tries to avoid in NYC.

And yet it took NIN a dozen years to just play it themselves for the kids.

Why? Perhaps because when fans look and hear that incredible collab, we wish there was more. But when Trent looks back, he feels gross for being... down in it.

“Once I got clean, I felt a tremendous amount of shame of my actions and missed opportunities and the damage that I’ve caused in the past. ‘I’m Afraid of Americans’ falls into that category of me at my worst – out of my mind and ashamed of who I was at that time," Trent told Rolling Stone.

"So when I see that, I have mixed feelings – grateful to be involved and flattered to be a part of it, but disgusted at myself.”

2009 was also a big year for Trent because after the tour he married fellow singer Mariqueen Maandig from How to Destroy Angels, and formerly West Indian Girl. Together they have five children: Lazarus Echo, Balthazar Venn, Nova Lux, and two whose names have not been publicly disclosed.

The NIN Peel It Back World Tour begins next month in Dublin, Ireland. Grab your tickets on the Nine Inch Nails website.