Volcano Suns

[Tim Wicinski <wicinski@nrl-css.ARPA>]

VOLCANO SUNS/SKINNY PUPPY 9:30 CLUB 12/5/85

I showed up early for this show because I was hearing rumors that it
planned to sell out.  I was wrong.  The crowd tonite was small, but
still eager.  I arrived in time to see the first band, Skinny Puppy.
Hailing from British Columbia, this three member trio came onstage
under a huge cloud of smoke.  I thought this smoke nonsense went out
with Kiss ??  Well, they consisted of two synth players and a singer,
and all three had voice boxes for effects. Basically, they were awful.
Trying to imitate Bauhaus, they failed miserably and were stuck 
in the "depression from a bottle of valium" mode. 
At one point the singer
pretended to cut himself with a piece of glass and proceeded to have
fake blood gushing out of his wrist while moaning "I'm dying, I'm
dying...".  At best they are a bad imitation of Bauhaus, at worst, well
never mind.

After a long break, mainly because Skinny Puppy had so much junk on
stage they had to clear off, The Volcano Suns.  I knew I was in for a
treat when the guitarist walked onstage saying "Enough of this
synthesizer crap, now its time for some real music." With Peter
Prescott (ex -Mission of Burma) singing as well as drumming, this trio
ripped through their set in about 40 minutes.  After their second song,
the guitarist stopped and said "Look, look, I cut myself on my guitar
pick ! oh I'm dying I'm dying... look at the blood..." and other cracks
at the first band.  They had their set cut short due to the first band
taking so long, but still had enough time to go through most of their
songs from \fIBright Orange Years\fR and still play an encore, a
"burma-esque" version of "1999".  What an ending indeed.