Skinny Puppy Musing

   Skinny Puppy Musing

This appears to be Skinny Puppy’s last tour; I asked my trusty engineer if he was planning to attend as he had seen them way back in 1987. Certainly,  he would want to catch them one last time, but no.  I guess seeing them long ago was enough, he just just wanted to remember the time he saw them years ago, and really wasn’t interested.  He had an interesting story, here goes.

 

My Engineer’s Skinny Puppy Story:

Well, I always went up to Marilyn’s, Screams, Peanuts and Knotts as a teenager. All these places played Deathrock, New Wave, (yes Knotts Berry Farm had a Goth crowd), and I would meetup with my friends and hang out at one of these spots. Screams, or Peanuts if I remember correctly required an ID, so my pal Eric, his brother took us to a check cashing place to get fake ID’s, you could get away with this then, as long as you didn’t push it. Screams always played the more hardcore underground industrial, the crowd to me anyway, seemed older ,and looked so different than my friends. I mean, here I am a high school student, and this guy like 50 is walking around with these strange gadgets on his hands dancing, and he has super long hair, everyone just reacts differently, or so I thought. I don’t know, I was really too young to be there, but I was with older guys, and whatever. Anyway, from here I started meeting people from the West Side, and I always had to work for my father up in North Hollywood, so after work, I would walk over to Melrose hit the shops, hangout then catch the bus home. So, I had high school friends, and all these club friends, and these much older friends.

From hanging around Screams I started to get into the dirge-like big beats, you know like Cabaret Voltaire, I really loved them, listened to them always. I think, I was my in my sophomore year when I discovered Skinny Puppy. Anyway, the owner of Vinyl Fetish told me if you like Cabaret Voltaire you will love Skinny Puppy. I don’t remember if he sold me a demo, you see he had a  wall of demo tapes, and years later he sold me a London After Midnight demo tape, which I sent to a friend in Germany. I think you might remember him selling me Suicide Commando, and This Ascension .

The early Skinny Puppy  blew me away, to me they sounded influenced by Cabaret Voltaire , but much harder. A few of my friends liked them but, for the most part the group I hung with did not like them, or Cabaret Voltaire. Nothing against their tastes, I wasn’t much of a Smith’s fan, I just wasn’t.

So, in my senior year, I believe one of my friends found out Skinny Puppy was playing in downtown Los Angeles, and Vinyl Fetish was selling the tickets. If I recall, I think three or  four of us had to ride the bus after school up to Melrose to buy the tickets. The owner, I cannot remember his name now sold us the tickets. I Remember him telling us, the day after the show, Skinny Puppy would be there signing autographs. The tickets, I still have the stub, the show  costs  12.50$. Imagine the prices now? Wow!

  Anyway, after school the night of the concert, none of our parents would take us, so again we had to ride the bus to Los Angeles to the concert. The show took place at the Variety Arts Center, I think there must haver been 300 hundred people there, but for the most part older people, well to us high school students they were older people.

Edward Kaspel opened ; this older British guy stood with us the whole time explaining The Legendary Pink Dots. Really, I just wanted to enjoy the show, but whatever….

Skinny Puppy came on, and they were really harsh, I had been to other concerts, but Skinny Puppy was totally different, the singer was really throttling the microphone, the whole stage show just blew me away, even the fake shooting at the end threw me off. Anyway, we had to wait till morning wandering downtown until we could ride the bus back home.

Next morning, we got up, and somehow made it up to Melrose, and got all our posters signed, and were able to speak to the band, this was really before they were well-known. It was super cool, and we were able to speak them forever (well it seemed like forever). I don’t know, we were just dopey high school kids, but it was really a high, lots of fun!

 

Well, that’s his story.

 

The playlist March 15, 2023

 

1. Skinny Puppy                                     Thieves/Dig it
2. Cabaret Voltaire                                Blue Heat
3. Gary Numan                                       My Name Is Ruin
4. Night Club                                           Dear Enemy
5. Omnimar                                             The Matrix
6. And One                                              Killing the Mercy
7. Ministry                                               Thieves
8. KANGA                                                 Going Red
9. :Wumpscut:                                        Crown of Thorns (LP Version)
10. Nine Inch Nails                                   Closer to God
11. Nitzer Ebb                                           Getting Closer
12. Armageddon Dildos                           Intimidated
13. Vosh                                                     Bleed as One
14. My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult       A Daisy Chain 4 Satan (Acid & Flowerz Mix)
15. Elektroklänge                                  Heimkonsole (Mehrsprachige Version)
16. Apoptygma Berzerk                          Non-Stop Violence
17. Kant Kino                                            Children in the Park (Sinna Acid)
18. Combichrist                                        Monster: Murder: Kill
19. Faderhead                                          Dark Water
20. Zombie Girl                                        Panic Attack (Venal Flesh Mix)
21. Project Pitchfork                               Rain
22. Covenant                                            Dead Stars (version)
23. Ministry                                              Stigmata

 

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