Skinny Puppy - The Avalon - Boston, MA - June 7, 2007
Posted by Jesse Coy on 06.19.2007
Nine Inch who? What's the best industrial album and industrial live act of the year? Go and check out the band that taught Trent what to do and remains an industrial pioneer. Skinny Puppy is touring once more.
I always run later than I plan for shows, or at least a lot of times. Anyway, here was a show where I didn’t want to miss a moment of the main act. I was as surprised as hell when I found out that Skinny Puppy was putting out a new release this year, which led me to discover that they’d put out a release before that, apparently reforming after The Process, which even in the linear notes, ended with The End, as in, Skinny Puppy was over. That bummed me out a bit, first because they were a phenomenal industrial act, and second, as one of the founders of the genre, or certainly forefather pioneers, I regretted never catching them live. An old friend who is dead because he hung himself once told me of seeing Godflesh and Skinny Puppy, and had said that Skinny Puppy was insane, having in their backdrop a giant metal tree with limbs hanging from the branches.
So anyway, I figured if the band had a new album, there was a good chance they’d be touring. And happily… they were. So Shirleen and I gathered everything together. I made sure we’d have drinks for down there. And then she drove down, because I’d drive back. I was buzzed. We were listening to a mix I’d made from all the albums… or most. The last four weren’t on there, and I didn’t have one of those, The Greater Wrong of the Right, which I’m listening to now. For $15, I purchased it at the show. Since we haven’t had much time to talk, I told her we could talk about whatever she wanted on the drive down. I wanted to have fun. I easily guided her to the Boston Commons, where we parked, set to walk to the venue. I hurriedly whipped up two mixed drinks to bring along the way. I even found her a restroom early on so that wouldn’t be an issue on the walk.
We went along Newbury Street, which is an excellent nighttime walk. I love walking at night through a city. Arrived at the Avalon, and not long after, Skinny Puppy would be playing. I was a bit curious as to what their openers might look like, but was more than fine with just catching Skinny Puppy. I used to say Skinny Puppy were doing their thing before Trent Reznor was anybody (indeed, he opened for them in the late 80’s, and his “Down In It” was inspired by “Dig It”), and when Alain Jourgensen was sounding like the Human League. To be fair to Alain, though, I’ve since heard some demos he did around 1980, and they were some good industrial tracks. The difference is, as the 90’s progressed, he got less and less interesting. As for Skinny Puppy, even with The Process, where they were pressured into a sound and style, they were still far more interesting.
My ending thought on the entire show? This is what industrial music could and should be. And when it comes to performance art in a concert format, Marilyn Manson, for example, is an illiterate pansy in comparison. The music and performance were incredible here. Shirleen wanted to get snuckered, so she ordered a double rum and cola. Only the downstairs was open this time around, so I had to rediscover a good vantage point. I found a place with a pretty good view, yet it always seems to be the case that a tall person magically appears. Okay, now while I love Skinny Puppy’s material, there’re times I have difficulty remembering individual song titles, only because the material on the album fits together like a movie score or bizarre and futuristic symphony. I still jotted down and took notes on songs.
Once more, the internet is fascinating to happen, because there was a link to their tour set, and there was a link to the tour set, and there I was able to fill in the gaps I had. Before I get into the songs, though, there was the actual setup. For the first three songs, vocalist n. Ogre was a silhouette. Concealed behind a white shadow box that looked blood splattered, it was as though a captured shadow creature was the singer. He donned various headgear, and I was wondering if he’d remain behind there for the whole show. He finally did emerge, looking like a cross between a Borg and something out of a Clive Barker novel. It was quite interesting. As for the rest of the band, you had programmer cEvin Key off to the side, and live drummer Mark Walker overlapping live drums with programming beats. It’s a unique style that sounds like no other band. All throughout, there was a large video screen that projected a trippy assemblage of imagery behind them.
They kicked things off with a classic track, “Anger.” Off their newest release, they performed “Ugli” (with its catchy refrain “Jesus wants to be ugly”), “Politikil,” “Pedafly,” and “Haze.” “I’mmortal” was from their first return album. I easily recognized it the next day, listening to that album for the first time. As for the older material, they relied the most on Rabies, playing “Rodent,” “Worlock,” and, to my great joy, a favorite and the first ever Skinny Puppy song I’d heard, “Fascist Jock Itch.” From my favorite album by the band, Too Dark Park, they only did “Tormentor.” But since the show was so great, I won’t complain.
“Amnesia” was from their The Process album, and then more older tracks, there was “Dig It,” “Dogshit,” and an encore of “Social Deception” and “Testure.” Oh well… I recant. Since I do this for other shows, while I’m not “complaining,” I will throw in the material I would’ve liked to see. There was “Chainsaw” and “Gas Attack” (which, considering the Iran and Iraq headlines, I thought maybe they’d do), “Spasmolyatic” (or anything else off Too Dark Park), or “Killing Game” (kind of surprised they didn’t do that one). No matter, I think I’ve plugged this one in as the best live show this year thus far.
The 411: If a show comes along that hits a 10, I might be in trouble. I've seen some great performances this year, but midway, this has been the best.
