#2 Trent Reznor Nine Inch Nails
There is no bigger musical influence on my teenage years than Nine Inch Nails. Being from Cleveland I ended up seeing them about 20 times before Pretty Hate Machine would go big time. Between 89-91 it seemed like NIN opened for every industrial/alt rock band that would come threw Cleveland. (Funnies one was he opened for Peter Murphy and about half the crowd left after NIN.) He also played every few weeks on his own in very small clubs.
Trent Reznor gave a voice to pretty much everything I felt during my teenage years growing up in Ohio in a fairly strict religious family. The anger, frustration, disappointment were all very much central to my teenage years. Filled with tons of religious references his music spoke to me in a way that no other music really ever has. (In part because when I was younger my personality was much more simple and easier to put into a box. My anger was all consuming and totally defined me during this period.)
Musically I still find his work to be amazing. The fact that Pretty Hate Machine is all him. He did everything on that album. Even is newer stuff I am amazed with even if I don't find myself in the head space to listen to his stuff all that often.
His shows have always been a tour de force. Here is a performer that gives everything at all his shows and it was very obvious. From seeing him in small clubs in Clevelend to Arena Rock with David Bowie to acoustic orchestra music at Bridge School, Trent Reznor puts on a show that is captivating and awe inspiring.