Changes

This is the original album version. It consists of a 6/4 instrumental ostinato that builds up from the odd sounds of humming (created by blowing into the neck of a saxophone, removed from its main body) and "erasers" straw-like noises (created by blowing into the mouthpiece of a saxophone, removed from the neck) at the beginning through heavy . Heavy rhythmic drumming enters, and very oddly tuned, distorted guitars before dropping out to the 4/4 vocal areasection, which gets progressively louder until Trent Reznor yells "Kill Me!" It then completely degenerates into noise and cuts off with only the fading out of the string synthesizer. The beginning crossfades from the end of "[[A Warm Place]]" and its ending crossfades with the introduction of "[[Reptile]]"."

"Eraser" made its live debut on [[1994/08/27 Rochester, NY|August 27, 1994]]. Often played with screen projections of some sort. During the [[Self Destruct Tour]], these projections were of desert landscapes and microscopic "chaos". A  An instrumental version played during the [[Dissonance]] Tour begins with a new drum loop and the humming/straw sounds, it builds with the same guitar parts as the album version. The atmosphere builds until approximately the middle of the song, where the lead guitar switches from the main melody and into a version of the "[[The Downward Spiral (song)|The Downward Spiral]]"-motif played by Reznor, which builds in volume into a distorted, start/stop climax and a final power chord left ringing. The variation of the motif found here is much shorter and played as follows, with variations that bend the notes similar to the song's regular guitar melody:

During the [[Live: With Teeth]] tours, these screens images on the screen progressed from peaceful images of lush meadows and flowers to violent and disturbing images of war, assembled by Andrea Giacobbe. During the European leg of the [[Performance 2007]] tour, no projection was used during the performance. However, small lamps would float directly above each band member and sway back and forth. The song was played sparingly during the [[Peel It Back Tour]] as a transition from Act I on the B-stage to Act II on the main stage, always following "[[The Fragile (song)|The Fragile]]" and preceding "[[Wish (song)|Wish]]". Only the instrumental half of the song was played, and the secondary guitar and bass guitar were not played. During the Self Destruct, Live: With Teeth, Peformance 2007, [[NIN 2013-2014|2014]], and the [[Cold And Black And Infinite Tour|Cold and Black and Infinite]] tours, Trent Reznor would play secondary guitar. During the [[Wave Goodbye Tour]] and the [[NIN 2022|2022 Tour]], Reznor would instead play piano, and during the Wave Goodbye Tour and Peel It Back Tour, Reznor would make the intro sounds live using a saxophone mouthpiece.