"Sorry for the f--- ups," Trent Reznor said halfway through what was originally scheduled to be Nine Inch Nails' final show ever at the Echoplex in Los Angeles. But when Reznor got sick last week, it forced the group to reschedule some of the L.A. shows, now leaving the much larger Wiltern as the swan song this Thursday. "We'll have to make the best of it," he added.

Any disappointment over the schedule conflicts -- and there was definitely some as fans who had made travel plans vented their frustration on the NIN message board, prompting Reznor to write in, "Ahh... my first browsing around online and I find this wonderful thread. I'm sick, I can't help it. It happens." -- was tempered at least for the lucky 600 or so fans in attendance by the fact that, while no longer the grand finale, it was still Nine Inch Nails in a tiny club.

That wasn't lost on Reznor who dubbed the night the "full circle tour," saying, "We're back where we started." And the band went back to the beginning for a breathtakingly subdued and quiet rendition of the 'Pretty Hate Machine' track, 'Something I Can Never Have,' a song seldom played in recent years. Another welcome old-time rarity was 'Down in It.'

As he did on Wednesday at the Palladium, Gary Numan joined the band, this time for strong versions of 'Metal' and 'I Die: You Die.' But even with Numan on hand and Reznor and company doing a cover of Adam and the Ants' 'Physical' and their version of Joy Division's 'Dead Souls,' from 'The Crow' soundtrack, the intimacy and the fact this was scheduled to be the last show made it more of a goodbye.

Early in the night, during 'The Beginning of the End,' Reznor delivered the line "This is the beginning of the end," with a ferocious clarity. And even he got a little sentimental, thanking fans before the encore for "Being there all these years."

But at least for now there are two more chances to wave goodbye. And if the first two L.A. shows have been any indication, this is going to be one hell of a going-away party.