It’s hard to believe that Skinny Puppy was formed a little over thirty years ago in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Through all their ups and downs, hiatuses’, and all, the band has managed to keep to their core and deliver one hell of a show. To say their performances are over the top would be a massive understatement. With that, the group brought their vision of the end of the world to Tipitina’s earlier this month for one amazing mind blowing experience.
The evening started off with DJMREX, a duo consisting of Douglas J McCarthy and Cyrusrex from Las Angles. In effect to challenge the listener, the band primarily uses analog modular synth systems, unique effects processing and samples of voice and sound to creating complex textures. All this chaos is wrapped around a visual presentation that mirrors everything on stage. They were the perfect appetizer for the evening’s main act.
This was my forth time seeing Skinny Puppy live and by for the most vivid. The band took advantage of new projection techniques and 3-D mapping to create its latest landscape. Each tour has its own theme and this tour is Live Shapes for Arms. A post nuclear wasteland was the backdrop for the performance art at hand. The theatrics consisted of Ogre acting out mayhem all over the stage. Every few songs, he would disappear behind a projection box and change costumes. This tour in particular isn’t as bloody as past performances, but there was still a little blood to go around as he mutilated himself of stage with a machete. Although Skinny Puppy has a fairly deep catalogue of music, the band was mainly focused on a few albums, last year’s Weapon comprising the most part of the set as well as Rabies, Remissions, and Cleanse Fold and Manipulate. Choosing to do material from so few albums helped keep the message concise. The encore was odd in some aspects because Ogre came back to the stage not dressed up. It was a bit odd to see the man behind the mask, but still awesome none the less.
Setlist:
Choralone
illisiT
Village
The Choke
wornin’
plasiCage
Deep Down Trauma Hounds
Worlock
paragUn
Hexonxonx
tsudanama
Pasturn
saLvo
First Aid
Solvent
ENCORE
Far Too Frail
Glass Houses
Smothered Hope
Overdose
