Photo Credit: Chris Loomis
Being misunderstood by those who only look to the surface is a long-standing problem that negatively affects people’s lives. In the world of theatrical live music performances, this has been a reoccurring dilemma. Dark Industrial/Electro band Skinny Puppy has often been misunderstood as well as slightly underrated. Still, those who grew up with their horror-inspired antics understand and love the band who influenced so many industrial bands to come. This local Los Angeles band, formerly from Canada, has just finished a magnificent forty-year run that began in the 1980’s. Skinny Puppy, a band Nine Inch Nails used to open for, played four Los Angeles shows at The Belasco Theater in honor of their long tour life that is now completed.
Despite the announcement that Skinny Puppy has just disbanded, these four live shows were anything but somber. As an attendee of two out of the four shows, I didn’t have a dull moment during any of the two-hour sets. The first show was December 1st, and the last was December 5th, 2023, where they ended on an uplifting note by singing Happy Birthday to lead vocalist Ogre.
Opening for Skinny Puppy at these shows was an industrial duo called Lead Into Gold, a project of Ministry’s former bassist Paul Barker. They released a new album in 2023 titled The Eternal Present, supporting this live, of course. They possess the more classic elements of the electronic vibe of keyboards dominating vocals. The keytar was also used towards the end, which was a powerful and fun addition. The vocals mostly carried an echo to them that made any lyrics difficult to understand, but when the heavy bass beats would chime in, it gave the music an extra punch. The backdrop screens were filled with projected video images and color schemes. This created the effect that the band members were engulfed in the backdrop colors as well, and their shadows appeared. The video colors followed the beat changes, which was a nice integrating effect. Belonging to the Wax Trax! label, they all came from a similar clan as Skinny Puppy.
Lead Into Gold
Photo Credit: Chris Loomis
Around nine-fifteen or so, Skinny Puppy took the stage, and started the evening off with their song “Brap,” which made an appropriate entrance for them, since it is a term they made up for getting into the performing style they thrive in. They also mixed in another two versions of “Brap” as well later in the set. For those who are old school fans of Skinny Puppy, it is known that Ogre and cEvin Key bring plenty of visual theatrics to the live stage, which are meant to enhance the musical direction further. Skinny Puppy sometimes portrays disturbing images, but their music has animal rights activism, anti-chemical warfare, and clean earth subject matter, among other noble topics. They explore the idea that humans create their own demise through these selfish acts, destroying the beauty of this planet and deeming it unsafe and almost uninhabitable.
On the last special evening of Skinny Puppy’s final tour, they managed to dip into twelve of their albums, playing some greats such as “Tormentor,” “Warlock,” “Immortal,” “Dig It,” and “Assimilate,” to name a few. Starting off the live performance was Ogre behind a shower-like a white curtain that depicted a shadow puppet show with “floating” elements such as guns, ghosts, etc. This continued while he made his debut appearance to the front facing the audience revealing him wearing an alien head with red glowing eyes. He wore this for most of the set, and another helmeted character with black horns would stab him in the leg or try to poke and prod at him in different ways while he was singing. After a video image of Aleister Crowley art, which held the premise of some of the stage antic ideologies, there were a few different interesting live feed cameras at play. This included cEvin Key wearing Ray Bans with cameras in them standing behind his keyboard that projected live feed on the video backdrop screen. The horned character would also create live feed with his video camera, that was then swirled around abstractly with bright colors on the screen.
Other visual effects that entertained the crowd included a dead fetus in a jar, that was later released, and possibly brought to life. Then there were some exposed brains, and for a visual performance art interpreted, one could say this was a rebirth and symbolism to expose one’s mind to the reality within. On another note, if someone unfamiliar with Skinny Puppy walked into the theater seeing a guy with an alien head singing, while some other horned dude performed invasive experiments on him, they probably would just walk right back out. As humorous as it can seem, it all has a great message, and that message can often be missed by people who only see one side of a coin. Feeling like you are suffocating and alienated on your own planet can be a very unpleasant experience, an experience that many individuals can relate to these days with the way the world has all but blown itself up.
On each of the final four nights, the Skinny Puppy setlist remained similar, except the two encores varied in their song choices, which created that extra element of surprise. On the final evening, the three songs of the second encore were “God’s Gift (Maggot),” “Assimilate,” and “Candle.” A perfect ending to a wildly entertaining evening, where as the previous nights only had one or two of the second encore songs. Ending just before eleven-thirty, Skinny Puppy said their goodbyes, and after those fortunate enough to be standing out front of the venue at the time got to see the black pickup truck cruise by with Skinny Puppy written on the side, all decked out acknowledging the real aspect of it all vanishing before our eyes
Skinny Puppy is and will always be one unique band that has pushed the gothic and industrial scene into where it is today. For those who were not born or lived in a box during the eighties and early nineties, the tragedy of missing out on Skinny Puppy can not be rectified. Despite their choice to not continue touring, which is more than likely to actually happen, unlike Motley Crue, Kiss, or The Scorpions who have had quite a few “final” tours, Skinny Puppy is still very relevant today. Both Ogre and cEvin Key have their solo or other music projects that will most likely continue. They make for a great dark gothic club music dance vibe that will no doubt be continuing to be on the DJ rotations into the future. Therefore, they will certainly not be forgotten.
Skinny Puppy
Photo Credit: Chris Loomis
Spotted Skinny Puppy Truck provided by Lisa Burke
