So I got back from Skinny Puppy's performance at the Showbox of couple of hours ago. I'll just go ahead and officially christen my tradition of giving a post-show recap right here and now with this, my rundown of the highlights and lowlights.
Opening the show was Chris Vrenna's (Nine Inch Nails) side project Tweaker, an amalgam of not quite industrial, not nearly depressive enough to be called goth, slightly jazzy (think The Grassy Knoll) stylings. I believe I also detected a hint of The Heart's Filthy Lesson era Bowie if I'm not mistaken. It's tough to categorize their sound precisely but I'd say that the label gloom-pop defines them pretty well. Now I'm fully aware that the term gloom-pop was a short lived label applied to bands like Stabbing Westward and Gravity Kills (remember them? Nah, didn't think so) to describe their dumbed-down industrial stylings, and that the bands that defined the sound have all adamantly disowned it because it failed to catch on, but Tweaker are far more deserving of the mantle because of the art and intelligence the bring to it. So there.
That said, the band never once acknowledged the crowd with so much as a word, so I think they're a bunch of snobby cocksuckers.
Skinny Puppy finally took the stage after more than forty minutes of set-up (confirming a major irritation of mine as it pertains to industrial bands). In time honored fashion, Ohgre came out in a typically fucked up costume. In this instance he looked like some sort of macabre chicken mummy. After a few numbers he ditched the chicken suit to reveal his scrawny Canadian self drenched in fake blood. Periodically he'd smear himself in a fresh coat of the stuff when it began to wear off. Somewhere I thought I heard D.R. Goettel pounding furiously at his coffin lid.
Anyway, they played a pretty good assortment of songs from their twenty year career. Not the least of which two of my personal favorites, Tin Omen and Worlock, both off of Rabies and what I consider their finest work, second only to Too Dark Park.
I noticed right off the bat that Skinny Puppy live sounds virtually the same as Skinny Puppy on CD. I only note this because I've seen a lot of bands and it's particularly true of those who use heavy synth as their foundation to opt for a more stripped down sound in their live performances. Not true at all with Skinny Puppy. I was also happy to hear that they got a flawless mix, but then that's typically what I've come to expect from The Showbox crew.
A few brave individuals tried futilely to dance, but didn't persist for too long. One doesn't so much dance to Skinny Puppy as twitch or convulse. Their music is far too erratic to pick up on a single consistent rhythm that you can dance to. While I still consider them to be a synth-pop band, they aren't afraid to deviate from the formula and mess with sound patterns that their more self-conscious colleagues would never dare toy with for fear of losing their accessibility. I realized that this is the reason I always favored SP over Nine Inch Nails, because while Trent toes the line between mainstream and the fringe, Ohgre surrenders himself to what's on the far side of it in that no-man's-land known as avant garde and has no compunction of turning the unlistenable into his conventions.
That's all a little haughty sounding, isn't it? I know, here's putting it in simple terms. Think of those two robots from The Black Hole. Surely you remember that shitty Disney movie that you thought was great when you watched it as a kid in the 80's, right? Well, if synth-pop were Vincent,
then Skinny Puppy would be Bob to synth's technical perfection,
That a little clearer now?
Before the show I bumped into Josie, SGSeattle's esteemed karaoke hostess. It seems that she too will be leaving Seattle at the end of this month, bringing the total to four, possibly five people I used to look forward to seeing at least once every week who will soon be conspicuous by their absence. Even though she wasn't a member of this site she still felt like one of the gang. I know she will be sorely missed.
On a brighter note, I found out a couple of days ago that Sky Cries Mary has reformed and will be playing a couple of shows in August! This is fantastic news for me as they were my first favorite, truly alternative band when I was in high school. I went through a pretty grim period leading up to that point where I listened pretty much exclusively to rap. I've since come to think of that period as the logical reaction to my cousins' hair-metal indoctrination of me. But these guys were my very first favorite band, one that I made on my own, without any outside influence. It was sort of a coming of age thing, I guess. For a few years I was also fortunate enough to have a running correspondence with them, though I sadly never got to meet them in person. I started off by writing them a letter. A few weeks later I got a hand written postcard back. Not an email, not some standard typed up fill-in-the-blank canned response, but a personal reply. Over the course of almost ten years I must have written them dozens of letters and they responded in this same fashion nearly every time. But I digress. You'll have to excuse my fanboy gushiness. The nostalgia is overwhelming.
Well I'm going to draw my sentence structure butchering ramblings to a close. I'm sure I'll look this entry over tomorrow and cringe. But for now, if you'll pardon me, I'm going to brush my teeth and watch Clash of the Titans until I fall asleep.
As Ever,
Matt
Live Journal rantings
MySpace bullshit
Opening the show was Chris Vrenna's (Nine Inch Nails) side project Tweaker, an amalgam of not quite industrial, not nearly depressive enough to be called goth, slightly jazzy (think The Grassy Knoll) stylings. I believe I also detected a hint of The Heart's Filthy Lesson era Bowie if I'm not mistaken. It's tough to categorize their sound precisely but I'd say that the label gloom-pop defines them pretty well. Now I'm fully aware that the term gloom-pop was a short lived label applied to bands like Stabbing Westward and Gravity Kills (remember them? Nah, didn't think so) to describe their dumbed-down industrial stylings, and that the bands that defined the sound have all adamantly disowned it because it failed to catch on, but Tweaker are far more deserving of the mantle because of the art and intelligence the bring to it. So there.
That said, the band never once acknowledged the crowd with so much as a word, so I think they're a bunch of snobby cocksuckers.
Skinny Puppy finally took the stage after more than forty minutes of set-up (confirming a major irritation of mine as it pertains to industrial bands). In time honored fashion, Ohgre came out in a typically fucked up costume. In this instance he looked like some sort of macabre chicken mummy. After a few numbers he ditched the chicken suit to reveal his scrawny Canadian self drenched in fake blood. Periodically he'd smear himself in a fresh coat of the stuff when it began to wear off. Somewhere I thought I heard D.R. Goettel pounding furiously at his coffin lid.
Anyway, they played a pretty good assortment of songs from their twenty year career. Not the least of which two of my personal favorites, Tin Omen and Worlock, both off of Rabies and what I consider their finest work, second only to Too Dark Park.
I noticed right off the bat that Skinny Puppy live sounds virtually the same as Skinny Puppy on CD. I only note this because I've seen a lot of bands and it's particularly true of those who use heavy synth as their foundation to opt for a more stripped down sound in their live performances. Not true at all with Skinny Puppy. I was also happy to hear that they got a flawless mix, but then that's typically what I've come to expect from The Showbox crew.
A few brave individuals tried futilely to dance, but didn't persist for too long. One doesn't so much dance to Skinny Puppy as twitch or convulse. Their music is far too erratic to pick up on a single consistent rhythm that you can dance to. While I still consider them to be a synth-pop band, they aren't afraid to deviate from the formula and mess with sound patterns that their more self-conscious colleagues would never dare toy with for fear of losing their accessibility. I realized that this is the reason I always favored SP over Nine Inch Nails, because while Trent toes the line between mainstream and the fringe, Ohgre surrenders himself to what's on the far side of it in that no-man's-land known as avant garde and has no compunction of turning the unlistenable into his conventions.
That's all a little haughty sounding, isn't it? I know, here's putting it in simple terms. Think of those two robots from The Black Hole. Surely you remember that shitty Disney movie that you thought was great when you watched it as a kid in the 80's, right? Well, if synth-pop were Vincent,
then Skinny Puppy would be Bob to synth's technical perfection,
That a little clearer now?
Before the show I bumped into Josie, SGSeattle's esteemed karaoke hostess. It seems that she too will be leaving Seattle at the end of this month, bringing the total to four, possibly five people I used to look forward to seeing at least once every week who will soon be conspicuous by their absence. Even though she wasn't a member of this site she still felt like one of the gang. I know she will be sorely missed.
On a brighter note, I found out a couple of days ago that Sky Cries Mary has reformed and will be playing a couple of shows in August! This is fantastic news for me as they were my first favorite, truly alternative band when I was in high school. I went through a pretty grim period leading up to that point where I listened pretty much exclusively to rap. I've since come to think of that period as the logical reaction to my cousins' hair-metal indoctrination of me. But these guys were my very first favorite band, one that I made on my own, without any outside influence. It was sort of a coming of age thing, I guess. For a few years I was also fortunate enough to have a running correspondence with them, though I sadly never got to meet them in person. I started off by writing them a letter. A few weeks later I got a hand written postcard back. Not an email, not some standard typed up fill-in-the-blank canned response, but a personal reply. Over the course of almost ten years I must have written them dozens of letters and they responded in this same fashion nearly every time. But I digress. You'll have to excuse my fanboy gushiness. The nostalgia is overwhelming.
Well I'm going to draw my sentence structure butchering ramblings to a close. I'm sure I'll look this entry over tomorrow and cringe. But for now, if you'll pardon me, I'm going to brush my teeth and watch Clash of the Titans until I fall asleep.
As Ever,
Matt
Live Journal rantings
MySpace bullshit
VIEW 10 of 10 COMMENTS
enzo525:
Yeah, I got it. 
tawnya:
I bet you say that to all the girls 