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soon as it was announced that Skinny Puppy was going to perform in Dresden,
Germany, at the Doomsday Festival the KillerV made sure to get a his ticket.
This
was a lifetime opportunity to get to see the Puppies which I already missed
twice: First time in 1988 when they played at Alexandra, Copenhagen. But
due to illness I had to stay at home.
On august 20th I got on the bus in Copenhagen and arrived in Dresden 7 pm. Found my way to the Festival area and immediately got into trouble at the gate; the guy at the entrance would not allow me to bring my Nikon to the area! He wanted my to deposit it at the entrance which of course was not acceptable... I persuaded him to let me bring it in after I completely rewinded the film. What I jerk! Everybody else was bringing their SLR cameras. However; as soon as I had gotten in I went to the toilets where I then pried open the film cassette and got the film back in the camera. Unfortunately the film was a 1600 ISO, so I had to wind it 10 frames forward in case it should have been exposed to light.
For the first 4 or 5 songs Ogre was not visible on the stage. He was apparently hiding behind a sort of screen in the center of the stage, but the voice was unmistakablely his. Cevin Key, however, was visible! He was playing the drums on the left side of the stage, playing with some big nasty looking drumsticks. When
Ogre finally appeared barechested and barefooted (after being shot!) he
was soaked in blood. His performance was absolutely brilliant; especially
during "Testure" when he finally got to be the hunter, smashing a doll
expanded from a string with his fists and feet. It was so real and ugly
that it almost made me sick.
At this
point I got my camera out but when I tried to shoot my 100-300 mm lens
literally came apart. The focusing ring somehow got loose from the rest
of the lens! Luckily I was able to force it back which enabled me to manually
move the focusing part back and forth but it was not an optimal situation
since there was no indication whether or not the frame was in focus...
The show carried on and during "Harsh Stone White" Ogre was dangling from the big center screen. It looked so cool! At one point he was only hanging by his feet but still managed to keep on singing. No wonder he was injured back in 1992... it looked so out of control! When the set was over Ogre and Cevin appeared holding each other, smoking on a big, big j.... and then they left the stage, but only to reappear for an absolutely fantastic encore to the sound of "The Choke" which was followed by my all-time favorite "Smothered Hope". This was so symbolically, being the very first song on the very first Skinny Puppy album! At this point rain began to fall, almost as if planned, which only added to the great atmosphere.... When
"Smothered Hope" was over the band left the stage to the words of Ogre
saying "thank you very, very much..." In my eyes it really looked as if
he meant it...
Walking back to my hotel in the middle of night while the rain was hammering down, still with the sound of "Smothered Hope" ringing in my ears is one of those moments I will never be able to forget! Next morning I got back in my completely soaked clothes and headed for the bus back home to Copenhagen... What a trip! This is the set list as compiled from Litany: Choralone
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