"Electronica Gone Mad" Tweaker and Skinny Puppy
6/11/2004 Roseland Theater in Portland, OR
By Robin Steeley
Tonight's show is an interesting pairing of Chris Vrenna's of Nine Inch Nails fame's latest project, Tweaker, and cult legends Skinny Puppy. I have heard wild stories about their live show so I have been anticipating tonight as something different in this year's concert season monotony.
First on stage is Tweaker, a dark set featuring Chris Vrenna behind the drums. Chris is a Grammy award-winning musician and shows off his talents here at the Roseland tonight with throbbing electronic melodies that seamlessly blended the songs together. He plays songs off his new release "2 a.m. Wakeup Call" which has recently gained critical praise. The foursome plays layered melodies intertwined with synth rhythms and dark ambience. They managed to recreate their album live which is often hard to do with this genre of music.
Next up is cult legend Skinny Puppy, coming on after a long interlude, the house lights go down and fog fills the room as wicked imagery appears on the dozens of TV sets positioned around the stage. The crowd goes insane as Ogre takes the stage in a suit that literally defies description and begins to jerkily ramble about, lost in his own world.
The music is full of orchestral layers, metal guitar, and electronica beats all surrounded by the strange yet compelling voice of Nivek Ogre whose lyrics deliver devastating political messages while a montage of bloody imagery flashes upon the TV screens on stage. Scenes of fire, war, symbolism, and gross devastation flash simultaneously with the music. They play songs old and new, but the crowd seems to really respond to new music from the bands latest release, "The Greatest Wrong of the Right". The crowd turns into a frenzy though when the Puppy performs some of their classic works such as "Glass Houses", "Warlock", and "Texture".
Overall, it was a show worth seeing; both bands are increasingly adventurous and are huge stage presences. The Goth-industrial performance of Skinny Puppy was worth waiting all these years to see and the dark, hypnotic sounds of Tweaker were interesting to hear blasting out of the Roseland Theater.
