“This is the last performance of this band,” Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor said ominously toward the end of NIN’s December 13 performance at Planet Hollywood’s Theatre for the Performing Arts, but it wasn’t quite as dire as it sounded: Two members of the NIN touring lineup are leaving the fold before the band heads to Australia in February. More importantly, though, this was indeed the last performance for NIN’s mind-blowing visual set-up, a light show so technically advanced that it recently got a feature write-up in Wired magazine.

Unlike a lot of giant concert spectacles, though, the NIN stage production didn’t constrain the band members from movement or spontaneity; rather, its intricate system of computer controls and laser sensors allowed for the stage’s three LED screens to respond in real time to the motions of the performers. It was a great enhancement for an already excellent rock show, which went on for more than two hours and featured a diverse range of songs from throughout the band’s career.

Reznor’s been highly prolific of late, and has released three NIN albums since the band’s last tour in 2005, so the evening was full of songs from 2007’s post-apocalyptic concept album Year Zero, March’s instrumental double album Ghosts I-IV and May’s The Slip. The newer songs mixed well with all of the band’s popular hits, as well as a few deep cuts from past albums (a few more selections from 1999’s underrated The Fragile would have been welcome, though).

Some of the mediocre Slip tracks sounded much stronger with the full force of Reznor’s live band, and certain familiar older tunes got impressive makeovers: “Closer” became a little louder and more guitar-driven, while “Piggy” turned into an airy, almost jazzy glide, complete with mandolin and stand-up bass. A three-song set of selections from Ghosts, which had the potential to be bathroom-break time, was one of the evening’s highlights, with the onstage screens placing Reznor & Co. in evocative nature scenes, while they ran through the album’s ambient electronic grooves on such decidedly non-hard rock instruments as banjo, xylophone and marimba.

Reznor joked that he’d be retiring the lighting rig to his house to see if he could watch porn on it, but he’d do well to continue pushing the boundaries of live performance. For this evening at least, NIN’s live show was as complex and rewarding as its albums.