Their appearance at Bonnaroo last much was supposed to be Nine Inch Nails last ever performance in the United States. Note the word was. Today, Trent Reznor announced that following its remaining European engagements, the band will return to the states for few more shows. “Getting right to the point, we’re going to play a handful of shows in NYC, Chicago and LA starting August 22nd,” Reznor writes in a note posted on the band’s website. “They will be informal affairs in medium to small venues with longer set-lists, possible special guests, cool openers and other surprises.”

The reasoning behind the decision? “Upon reflection, the NIN/JA tour felt like we had to rush through sets due to a limited allotted set length and many shows were in daylight – it just didn’t feel right to end NIN that way,” the NIN frontman goes on to explain. “An offer to headline V-Fest in Toronto (being announced soon) set the idea in motion to play some FUN shows to end this up with. If we can get it together we’ll film these shows, too.”

In addition to the headlining appearance at the Virgin Festival Ontario, which also is set to include Thunderheist, Mute Math and maybe Pet Shop Boys, Nine Inch Nails will play the Bowery Ballroom, Webster Hall and Terminal 5 in New York City, the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, and the Wiltern, The Henry Fonda, The Palladium and The Echoplex in Los Angeles, which at the very least, gives us nine upcoming dates. Openers will include Mew and The Horrors, exact details are still forthcoming…

As Trent says, “These should be cool, unusual and unique shows and I hope you come out — this is it.” We’ll believe the latter when we see it… but we couldn’t agree more about the “cool, unusual and unique” part.