Skinny Puppy
House of Blues
Electro-Industrial
November 9th, 2009 
reviewed by: Neil Miller, Jr.

For those of you who are put off by all the Christmas craziness going on already, it’s a good thing we still have bands like Skinny Puppy who are touring to remind us that every day is Halloween. Legendary in their own right, the Canada-natives single-handedly kickstarted an entire musical movement back in the early 80’s which would later come to be known as Industrial music. Their knack for experimentation put them in the same class as revered artists such as Throbbing Gristle and even Post-Punk luminaries like Lydia Lunch/Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. Fast-forward 25+ years later and they’re still touring and even more importantly, managing to remain ahead of the curve.

Skinny Puppy packed the house at the House of Blues and it’s no wonder – they still call Chicago their “second home,” as frontman Ogre claimed in his own words. Although the past few times Ogre and multi-instrumentalist Cevin Key toured were in support of a new album, this was the one exception to that rule. With a completed album being held in limbo due to the folding of their label, Skinny Puppy really are doing this for the fans – especially the most hardcore fans, at that. Their setlist consisted of material culled from their earliest albums, some of which hadn’t been performed in many years. They opened with ‘Love In Vein,’ the opening track from what’s considered to be their definitive album “Last Rights”.

Never once cutting back on the theatrics, Ogre knows how to reel in the crowd until the last goodnight. Complete with splatters of fake blood and Ogre portraying himself as a sort of crippled-undead-pope, the show was as much of a display of Skinny Puppy’s innate ability to cohesively layer sheets of sound atop one another as it was a live action horror show. It’s quite mind-blowing that their show is still this visually elaborate as they’re funding everything themselves on this tour. Tearing through their old-school setlist, SP performed fan-favorites such as ‘Morpheus Laughing,’ ‘Deadlines,’ ‘Rodent,’ and closed out their encore with ‘Far Too Frail’. This was the kind of show Chicago needed – bombastic in all the right places, yet subtly horrific at all the right times and rounded out with a heavy dose of enough distorted basslines and gut-shaking beats to massage our ear drums with. I’ll admit that I was dying to hear some new material from the next album, but last night’s show (just like every time I’ve seen them) was the summation of a band of seasoned veterans at their peak. They just keep getting better and better . . . as long as they keep on, Chicago and everyone else who appreciates challenging music will keep listening.

SETLIST
Love In Vein
Hatekill
Addiction
Dogshit
Deadlines
Politikil
Pedafly
Tormentor
Pro-Test
Rodent
Morpheus Laughing
Ugli
Assimilate Encore
Worlock
Brap
Far Too Frail