When Nothing is True… Anything is Possible
Reflecting on Skinny Puppy’s Beginnings and Their Last Shows
Among Skinny Puppy fans, December 5 is a calendar date that marks a bittersweet day. Though it celebrates the birthday of our beloved Nivek Ogre, lead singer of the band, it also marks the anniversary of the end of a 41-year career of one of the most iconic bands to emerge from the industrial scene— all of which was simultaneously celebrated one year ago today at the final Skinny Puppy show at The Belasco in Los Angeles, California.
In the mid-1970s and ‘80s, Kevin Crompton had been working on various instrumentals and tracks on his synthesizers at home, apart from his work as a drummer across numerous bands of differing genres, including Bastille, Illegal Youth, and Images in Vogue. Unlike the two other bands that leaned more towards trash-rock genres, Images in Vogue was a band that was growing more linearly to the likes of pop and new wave despite its experimental roots more linked to the Vancouver punk scene. By 1983, Crompton grew weary and disdainful of the band’s direction, eventually causing him to part ways in 1985.
As the infamous story goes, Crompton met Kevin Graham Ogilvie at a Vancouver party in late 1982, where they recorded the song “K-9” during a drunken session and saw the name “Skinny Puppy” written on the tape the next day— which is mostly true. As S. Alexander Reed’s brilliantly researched book, Assimilate: A Critical History of Industrial Music, goes on to correct, Crompton had come up with the name “Skinny Puppy” at least one year beforehand, and the band’s earliest tracks were those demos he had been composing on his synthesizers.
“[Crompton] already composed many of Skinny Puppy’s earliest tracks on his synthesizers at home before he asked [Ogilvie] to sing, moan, and cackle over them. [Ogilvie], a Calgary native, was nineteen or twenty when [Crompton] first heard him growl along to the jukebox at a diner, and his manic dourness— somehow both gregarious and cagey-seemed a good match for the demos [Crompton] had been cooking up” (S. A. Reed, 2013).
It was then that Kevin Ogilvie became Nivek Ogre, Kevin Crompton became cEvin Key (to avoid confusion of the two Kevins), and the earliest works of Skinny Puppy’s Back and Forth were composed. Inspired by Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, horror movies, and the first wave of industrialists, Skinny Puppy had its true beginning in 1983 by the two members who would be the most constant at the end of the band’s activity.
Through the work of early members Bill Leeb (Front Line Assembly), the dearly missed Dwayne Goettel, and Dave “Rave” Ogilvie (no relation to Ogre), who was a recording engineer and soundman for Images in Vogue and produced the Skinny Puppy’s first seven studio albums alongside countless other works, Skinny Puppy began its iconic, four-decade career, which I had the privilege of experiencing six times in 2023 on their final tour.
My journey with Skinny Puppy started in 2018 when I heard “Worlock” for the first time, though I was no stranger to Ogre’s work outside the band. My introduction to industrial was through KMFDM years before Skinny Puppy was in my regular rotation. Thanks to KMFDM, I discovered Ogre’s voice through songs like “Torture” (from my favorite KMFDM album in high school, Symbols), “Full Worm Garden,” and “That’s All.” My journey with Skinny Puppy is the opposite of most fans’ due to my discovery of Ogre’s side gigs first, including ohGr, which was a finding that happened when the band opened for KMFDM’s 2017 HELL YEAH! Tour in the United States.
Though I (regrettably) could not attend that tour and multiple of KMFDM’s and ohGr’s other tours that followed, the debut new festival, Sick New World Festival in 2023, was my chance to make it all up. After Skinny Puppy pulled out of Hellfest 2022 in Clisson, France (which I was rigorously planning on attending just to see the band live prior to their drop-out announcement), seeing Skinny Puppy, KMFDM, Orgy, She Wants Revenge, London After Midnight, and so many artists I had been dying to see on one lineup was like a dream come true.
Sick New World was where my six-show run began. As soon as the doors opened at the Las Vegas Festival Grounds, I ran to wait at barricade for the band. Standing for eight hours under the Las Vegas sun, pretending to be a random middle-aged gentleman’s wife to keep my spot, getting a comically shaped sunburn, and surviving off a single bottle of water, fruit, and a bite of a poorly cooked hot dog was completely worth it because I saw Skinny Puppy live for the first time and was given a guitar pick by the live member guitarist, Matthew Setzer, when their set ended. Seeing the iconic red puppy, Cedric, on stage, Ogre’s masked stage presence, Key’s iconic synthesizer set-up, and the energy from live members Setzer and Justin Bennett (drums) was just the beginning.
At this point, Sick New World marked the last show of the band’s first leg of the final tour. Though West Coast dates had been promised, no news had emerged. Speculation of the festival performance being the band’s final show circulated in Skinny Puppy circles, but that all changed when the second and final leg of the tour was announced.
Due to high demand, multiple Los Angeles shows were added at the end of the tour, all of which I spontaneously bought tickets to. For months, I watched fans online who attended their respective shows, met the band, and recounted their stories. I knew that Sick New World was me getting a taste of the band, but the energy at these tour shows would be undeniably different. And it was.
The other five times I saw Skinny Puppy were accounted for in Anaheim, CA, and all four Los Angeles shows. Following the pulsing, attention-grabbing, esoteric, and earplug-demanding performance of Paul Barker’s Lead Into Gold, the immersiveness of Skinny Puppy’s live performance, also incorporating Dustin Schultz’s role as The Tormentor, completely blew me away. Up until this point, I had refused to watch any videos or live recordings of the band’s final tour performance to be completely surprised by the storyline. During and after the show, my love for Skinny Puppy exploded exponentially, which I thought was impossible.
The incredible storyline told through the unchanging setlist (aside from the encores) every night reeled the audience in to watch the unveiling of an alien descending to Earth and its slow, inevitable demise met through the experimentation and intolerance led by human scientists and The Tormentor. Though different, the reminiscence of earlier Skinny Puppy shows was clear. Themes of body horror, innocence, torture, death, birth, oppression, anti-capitalism, and anti-imperialism were depicted through various songs across the band’s discography.
One of the many reasons Skinny Puppy fans are connected to the band is their unapologetically political stances favoring anti-totalitarianism, anti-government, resistance, and animal rights advocacy, so it was no surprise that this was a part of their show— the band knows how to show their support and stances tastefully. Though “VX Gas Attack” was the band’s introduction song to every show and denounced the use of chemical weapons and genocide, framing the song through the Iran-Iraq war as well as Israel’s occupation of Palestine, Ogre would hold up a paper watermelon sign for a shadow puppetry sequence during “I’mmortal,” displaying a pro-Palestinian stance as the United States actively funded the genocide in Gaza and the occupied West Bank (and, at this time of writing, still is).
Skinny Puppy’s music can be viewed from the eyes of a tortured animal (specifically a dog, as seen through “K-9”). Throughout the final shows, I was watching the band’s music through the eyes of a tortured alien. Although the story of the alien can be interpreted in different ways depending on the people I spoke to at the shows before and after it happened, I took it deeply personally with my own interpretations, which is a part of the beauty of Skinny Puppy— everyone and anyone can enjoy their art. Much like Reed explained in his book, Skinny Puppy was one of the first artists in the industrial scenes to have a more inclusive audience that wasn’t appealing to just men.
“Beyond the band’s image, though, there’s an argument to be made that Skinny Puppy’s music itself takes on aesthetics and forms that resonate with more inclusive ideas about gender and identity than did other industrial music of the era… Skinny Puppy took a music that had been (ironically or otherwise) militaristic and impenetrable and recast it as permeable, ectoplasm-drenched, and borderless. Their music embodies non-rigidity, overflow, theatrical spectacularity, birth, and irrationality. It creates a metaphorical space that welcomes real, visceral bodies— not body armor. Though it’s essentialistic and crass to declare these qualities intrinsically feminine, they nevertheless transgress the values of fitness, organization, cleanliness, and discipline that the overwhelmingly male industrial scene chose to privilege” (S. A. Reed, 2013).
The androgyny of Skinny Puppy, ranging from their earlier looks to themes of their continued music, allows for enjoyment beyond the binaries and chains of any identity, especially that of gender. That was clear to me when I was able to connect with fellow queer, especially transgender and non-cis, fans of the band who shared relief in being able to experience a different type of freedom and acceptance through the music, performed live or not. The music offers us a form of ascendance that is not always reflected nor afforded by reality. In this space, all of us were brought together by music that spoke to us and offered a listening ear that isn’t always portrayed in other forms of media or other artists.
To me, the alien’s story was reflective of the band’s message across the decades: a presentation of suffering endured by an innocent being at the hands of uncompromising, unempathetic humans. The alien stood as a genderless yet sentient being, experiencing the various forms of abuse and torture enacted by The Tormentor and his assistants. Experiencing the loss of a child, tauntings, beatings, testing, and intolerance weakened the alien. Yet, during “Dig It,” there is a moment when it rises from the ashes and resists. It resists until its dying breath, carried away by The Tormentor with a noose around its neck.
The ending of a fantastic and emotional presentation of the alien is met by minutes of flickering lights and a chattering crowd, and finally, an encore with Ogre coming back on stage not with his alien mask and makeup but with his signature Skinny Puppy hat and bare face. Performing a few surprise songs every night with heartfelt speeches, the shows would come to a close. Those fortunate enough to have purchased the VIP meet-and-greet packages are familiar with Ogre’s speeches on how he feels about the industrial and Skinny Puppy scenes. On the second-to-last show’s VIP soundcheck, I recorded Ogre speaking about the scene:
“This community is amazing. You all care about each other. You’re open. The whole scene, when you look at it, is one of the most accepting scenes in any genre of music, I think. I’m super proud to be a part of it, and thank you all for coming along on this journey.”
That was another unique aspect of Skinny Puppy that I will never experience at another live show again: real community.
At the final Los Angeles shows, I was as nervous as ever to meet the band for the first time and tell them about how I waited eight hours to see them at Sick New World (which they were very impressed and concerned by). I was supported by the new friends I had made in line, who I swapped stories with, who made me laugh, and who helped me keep my cool. I was even more nervous to meet the band for my second and final time because I had made them all customized Lego figures that I spent agonizingly long hours over crouched in front of my desk, anxious to make a mistake as that was my first time dabbling in miniature figure painting (both of which involved making the tiniest Skinny Puppy hat in the world and transforming brown hair to blonde). With lots of reassuring hugs from new and old friends, the band loved their gifts. I even had a moment to sprint back inside and give the band’s manager a small letter I wrote that I forgot to pass on when it was my turn (even if I don’t know if the band ever received it or read it).
I found people across all walks of life passionate about the band, the music, and keeping industrial alive. I saw fellow music fanatics who were not only interested in legacy bands but also in discovering smaller, local artists who were currently killing the game. I became friends with people who traveled across the country to see the final shows and even made best friends for life who made the final show an unforgettable experience. I connected with people who started to treat me as family because of how many nights we were greeting each other like old friends, knowing today would be better and more exciting than yesterday.
The final show, one year ago today, was full of anxiety unlike any other. A sold-out show in the beautiful Belasco theater was filled with birthday hats worn by Lead Into Gold, the crew, and several audience members. Show props were being destroyed and gifted to the audience. Before the encore, the fans on barricade, including myself, were handed out confetti party poppers to surprise Ogre, which both delighted and scared him all at once. As Ogre claimed, it was his reverse sweet sixteen, after all.
Though my adventure included a lot of happy and sad tears, memorabilia collecting like one of the sheets of paper scribbled on by The Tormentor’s scientists, guitar picks from Setzer, stickers, brain confetti from the alien, and non-material memories like Ogre holding my hand during “Assimilate,” I never imagined that I would be taking home a large chunk of the red skinny puppy mentioned earlier: Cedric. Yes, Ogre directly handed me the part of Cedric’s body he attempted to mutilate but was unable to break. I was shaking in complete disbelief, even shedding a few tears, but trying to keep my composure to stay in those final moments as Skinny Puppy played their last-ever song live— “Candle,” followed by the audience singing Ogre Happy Birthday. To this day, Cedric’s remains live humbly in my home alongside my other memorabilia from those final shows.
Though the end of Skinny Puppy is a loss that brings about great sadness, there is a greater metaphorical message to the band’s retirement. Something about the destruction of Cedric and other stage equipment, the closing of the Skinny Puppy chapter, the tearful goodbyes to friends that I would never see at a Skinny Puppy show again, all while celebrating Ogre’s birthday reminds me that life is a cycle, and two quotes come to mind; “You must meet death in order to be reborn,” as SAW II’s John Kramer said, and the ever-famous Charles Bukowski quote: “Drink from the well of your self and begin again.”
Skinny Puppy will never materialize again, but there are greater stories to tell, not just through music but through film, other passion projects, and memories.
Knowing the band’s history and seeing how the final show ended brought me an overwhelming feeling of catharsis. Everyone at that last show, and any date on the final tour in general, witnessed history. Though Skinny Puppy has come to an end, I feel fortunate enough to say that I experienced one of the most beautiful endings to a career imaginable for one of my all-time favorite artists.
I implore any avid buff of musicology, industrial music and the industrial genre, music theory, and music history to pick up the book mentioned in this piece by S. Alexander Reed, which includes a foreword from Stephen Mallinder, a founding member of Cabaret Voltaire.
Everything to know about the book: https://salexanderreed.com/assimilate
To purchase: http://www.amazon.com/Assimilate-Critical-History-Industrial-Music/dp/0199832609/ref=tmm_pap_title_0
Review of the book by The Society of Music Theory: https://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.14.20.2/mto.14.20.2.heetderks.html
Songs Mentioned in this Piece:
“K-9” — Skinny Puppy (1984)
“Worlock” — Skinny Puppy (1989)
“Torture” — KMFDM (1997)
“Full Worm Garden” — KMFDM (1999)
“That’s All” — KMFDM (1999)
“VX Gas Attack” — Skinny Puppy (1988)
“I’mmortal” — Skinny Puppy (2004)
“Dig It” — Skinny Puppy (1986)
“Assimilate” — Skinny Puppy (1985)
“Candle” — Skinny Puppy (1996)
“wornin’” — Skinny Puppy (2013)
Skinny Puppy’s Bandcamp: https://skinnypuppy.bandcamp.com/music
Fan-recorded, High-Quality, Multi-Cam recording of “Worlock” during the Final Show on December 5, 2023 (The Belasco in Los Angeles, CA): https://youtu.be/RQSf42ql7Mg
The Final Skinny Puppy Setlist: https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/skinny-puppy/2023/the-belasco-los-angeles-ca-7baee2b4.html
Fan-recorded, High-Quality, Audio-Only Taping of a show from the Final Tour (House of Blues in Chicago, 11.15.2023), available for download: https://youtu.be/A_rnEufXmzc?si=VSFhrv5oK9xJo0hD