cevin and nivek

Wow… going to see Skinny Puppy tonight, possibly alone. I’ve liked them for a looong time but finally decided I had to see them live. I originally planned on going to the show with some former co-workers but some miscommunication has left them ticketless and not interested in scalping tix, which is understandable considering the usual markup. So I’ll be dancin’ by myself, oh oh oh…

It has felt like a long week. The Symbicort I’m talking for my cough no longer seems as effective as the first day I took it. So I’m coughing sporadically again. Sigh… I’m reluctant to take too many doses. Look at the wonderful potential side effects : awareness of heartbeat or fast heartbeat/ cough (are you fsckin’ kidding me? this is what I’m taking it to stop!?!!!), dizziness, feeling agitated (about what? I’m feel fine. stop looking at me!), headache, hoarseness, irritation of the mouth or throat, muscle cramps, nausea, restlessness or nervousness, tremour, trouble sleeping….So basically… it won’t necessarily stop my cough and it could introduce more problems…. WICKED!

Having a get-together at my sister’s tomorrow. Should be fun.

UPDATE:

Ahhh what a show! To start a guy came on stage and starting checking equipment. I assumed he was a roadie or guitar tech. Then suddenly he started playing guitar over industrial samples and loops. And damn! did he play. I haven’t seen many guitar virtuosos but this guy was smoking. He never said his name that I heard anyway. He played mostly metal/death metal/industrial guitar chug-chugs with the odd bit of death meta vocals. He played for about 30m. Damn impressive for a solo act. Great job whomever you were.

The black clothed crowd was a pretty diverse range of ages. I was happy not to be the oldest one there. Not surprising of course, Skinny Puppy has been around awhile. Puppy took the stage fairly quickly after guitar god. Ogre was dressed in some odd KKK-ish looking white hat and a strange mask and was draped in an odd white cloth. He is certainly one for the theatrical. His stage presence was mostly strange zombie like movements and frozen gestures. He didn’t interact much with the crowd at all, and only spoke once saying hello Toronto. *shrug* I overheard a girl say he was pretty toned down for the show, he was usually more entertaining. I have no basis of comparison as it was my first SP show. The stage show was typical big screen with strange colourful winamp-like visualizations. The music sounded great. I was very impressed with cEVIN’s drumming. I loved the sound of his kit as well. Deep, solid, full of body and bass. He stole the show for me and made me long all the more of a drum set of my own. I found it odd that Ogre and cEVIN didn’t interact at all. Sure he was drumming… but nothing… I hate that. It makes me think they aren’t enjoying themselves. The show also ended abruptly without a final gesture to the crowd. Maybe I’m nitpicking but seeing an older band play I wonder about internal band dynamic and if the show is more about money.

Anyway… they played a good assortment of old and new material. I was disappointed they didn’t play Smothered Hope. 😦 But they played a lot of cool material, Assimilate, Far Too Frail, Ugli (strange Jesus visuals), Pedafly, I’mmortal…Ogre wore some sort of mask until the encore. Unmasked he reminded me of Trent Reznor. Overall, a very enjoyable show. Do crowds not slam dance, body surf or anything anymore? The crowd basically just stood around the whole show. They all couldn’t have got up at 6:30AM for work and were now tired at 11PM at night? Oh, and I love the Phoenix. By far one of my favourite venues in the GTA.