Review by Virtual Night Angel

The way Skinny Puppy sounds today is inviting, ever changing, building, expanding and continuously inventive. The Skinny Puppy show was really phenomenal.

Before the show started I met a guy at one of the music booths. He was promoting noise and experimental music. He graciously smoked me out due to my request. He took tobacco and mixed in some freshly burnt, soft, hash. After that nice experience, I danced as much as I could while watching Skinny Puppy.

The music was consistently awesome filled with familiarity, varied drum beats, sample patterns, and explored layers of new sounds. We saw colorful, deep shades of flashing lights among the massive images that were being projected. In this show Skinny Puppy were utilizing all the skills from their past experiences. Skinny Puppy made their music sound even more solid. The set had such an easy flowing but structured sound. The songs created a movie world of their own. It is hard to imagine, but it was an experience like no other. This music stirs up all kinds of thoughts, and I am motivated by the creativity of Skinny Puppy. I saw so much in this Skinny Puppy Doomsday 2000 presentation. I was inspired again by the talent and courage of the band. This was the only chance anyone had to hear this amazing band live and see all the freaked out creations on display for the long awaited Skinny Puppy stage performance.

It was very hard to see Ogre on stage at first. The stage had a big black curtain that opened the view that we would intensively absorb for as long as possible. As the music began I could feel the excitement of everyone in the audience. There was a very intense introduction by cEvin while I continued looking all over the stage for Ogre. I figured he must be behind something and preparing something big. I saw a robot which may have been a chair. It looked really weird and cool and spiky and pointy. cEvin was on the left of the stage amongst massively built up equipment. cEvin just kept cranking out serious, unbelievable, powerful, revamped live versions of our favorite Skinny Puppy songs.

They performed the songs, "Grave Wisdom", "Dig It", "Harsh Stone White", "Hard Set Head", "Vivisect VI" and "Tin Omen". I had a great view of Ogre finally and could see cEvin much better with binoculars. I kept thinking, "Don't let this performance end." The sound was so extremely phenomenal. I could hear Ogre's voice perfectly. I missed Ogre's singing so much, I missed this band so fucking much! Every time I would get to hear a new CD track containing a member of Skinny Puppy I was stoked.

I was so glad when I saw cEvin's awesome project, Download live in Los Angeles, or got to hear the CD, "Charlie's Family", the band, platEAU, cEvin Key's "Music For Cats", and the various Subconscious Communications compilation releases. I also liked hearing Ogre's project Rx, and the collaborations he did with KMFDM and Pigface.

The songs sounded so good live. I heard so many of my favorites including, "Love in Vein", "The Choke", "Smothered Hope" and "The Killing Game".

cEvin said he really enjoyed the show. He mentioned Greg Reely was the same person who had done sound for the last European tour and again for their performance at Doomsday. They even had pyro effects going off on stage.

Ogre was climbing around on the three or four panel screen that we viewed projected images on. Ogre was climbing all over these nice white projection screens all bloody. I kept thinking how Ogre had the best body of all the performers. His face was painted all white like a mime, but reminded me of a scarier Brandon Lee from The Crow, a bit. Ogre sang really well and thanked Dresden and thanked Germany.

cEvin Key looked like he was enjoying himself. He was surrounded by the monster drums and powerful electronics, computers and equipment. The Skinny Puppy setup gave the fullest live sound. The visual scenes on the screens were very interesting with some brutal fighting scenes, computer data, old photos, scenes of Charlie and many images that flashed by so fast. I'm sure everything was captured subliminally into my memory. I'm of course, only remembering bits and pieces now. Towards the very end of the encore some sprinkles came, then lightning and rain came right after their show had ended.

The Skinny Puppy sound should not be held back. It should have never been held back. It is what the fans live for and love! We need Skinny Puppy to continue on making, creating and delivering that classic sound they invented. Nothing they do is re-hashed, it is always a new development.

The lights at the show were great, it was just the right amount of cool lighting creating an atmosphere for a content and captivated crowd. It was as if Skinny Puppy resumed where they had left off. It did not sound like an old band playing old songs.

I wasn't sure what was actually happening at times. There were various effects I missed like a dude on stage pretending to shoot Ogre and a gun going off, as a part of the performance. I didn't see Ogre's demonstration with the bloody meat either. I did focus a bunch on the fans, too. The fans were incredibly happy. At the time of the Skinny Puppy performance everything was perfect. It was so great to have cEvin and Ogre connecting again musically for the year 2000.

A perfect year, and still Skinny Puppy is the ultimate legendary band. Two caring animal lovers who are very intelligent, motivated artists who create the best music, have fun, and are appreciated and should be continuously awarded for their past, present and future achievements. 1983 was the year Skinny Puppy began to play live. I was just nine years old then. Nine years later, at the age of eighteen I saw Skinny puppy perform for their 1992 Last Rights Tour in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. At the age of twenty-six I would finally get my dream fulfilled of seeing the band perform live again in Dresden, Germany.

I can not tell you how many internet trades I have done for live Skinny Puppy footage or videos. It was great seeing a few shows on video tape with different versions and better camera operators with better angles and views and quality.

There is definitely nothing like being there and experiencing it yourself. Someday soon, hopefully we will get to buy a DVD with all the Skinny Puppy archived concerts, videos, special footage, all we could ever want and more.

It is so great being around an enthusiastic audience. People would smile and call out the names of the songs all excited, when just two or three beats were played.

I never knew who the wonderful horror director Dario Argento was, until a big, Skinny Puppy fan told me about him. The Italian horror films "Tenebre" and "Suspiria" have scenes that were used in the Skinny Puppy "Worlock" video.

Ogre's voice is so clear and concise. It is straight forward and abrupt, militaristic and freaked out. Ogre's vocals are like poetry being mixed with musical rhythms and massive electronics. Trying to understand Ogre's true meaning to his lyrics is often difficult but interesting to interpret.

The special treatment in the effects and range on Ogre's bellowing voice add to the intensification of the whole technological Skinny Puppy experience. The musicianship and vocals is genius. No band can equally compare. We had so much fun in the V.I.P area which was on top of a hill overlooking the festival grounds. There were picnic tables, separate stands to purchase drinks and more port-a-potties to use.

We had fun after the rain hit, after Skinny Puppy. We were invited to the special backstage area. cEvin really wanted his Goth fans to do the hand dance during the show and some did. He really had that type of dance in mind and was creating beats to encourage it. cEvin was so nice.

He introduced us to a guy by the name of Frank, who had organized a special Skinny Puppy Smash Glasshouses party at a club called, "Glashaus", in Berlin for the following Saturday, August 26th. It was an after-the-concert get together to reminisce about the show.

We met the promoter from In Move, Mike, who was very kind and intellectual. It was nice listening to him speak with cEvin about the show and the fans from all over the world. We heard about the numerous e-mails from people describing what they would do to attend the festival if Skinny Puppy would perform live. They would simply sell their car to get a plane ticket. Some people paid big bucks for tickets to Germany from New Zealand, Australia, China, South Africa and Russia. To me, this was the most important event. It gave me a chance to feel the love that others shared for the band.

Ogre looked so cool live and after the show. I really wanted to talk to him. I felt he needed space after his performance. I wanted to tell him I had admired his work for so long. I will never forget this show. We met Stefan H., and a fan that had been to the last Skinny Puppy show in Europe, the, Vivisect VI Tour in Germany. Bree was so nice and fun to see and hang out with. cEvin signed my Terminal Choice Interview, since it didn't happen, as he was signing some other special items from fans.

This was the best show ever! I met only around fifteen people because many people like to keep to themselves. The outfits were beautiful both days and nights on the bands and on all the fans. It was nice getting to see Ogre and cEvin after the train ride, when we finally arrived in Prague. It was also nice to hear the taping of the press conference with Skinny Puppy. Travis witnessed it while I was at the booth with Chris Pohl and his band.

It is unbelievable that Ogre and cEvin answered our wishes and performed as Skinny Puppy again! I hope both Ogre and cEvin feel content and proud of how happy their outstanding show made everyone feel! You have created memories for everyone to remember forever.

http://www.subconsciousstudios.com/

http://www.inmove.de/skinnypuppy/index.html

http://userpages.aug.com/sgraham/

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