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For those of you who do not read your liner notes, Pigface are the culmination of virtually every "altern/Industrial" band on the planet. Jared from Chemlab, Oghre from Skinny Puppy and RX, Al Joergensen-Paul Barker and if I am not mistaken most of Ministry along with them, and even some little known superstar by the name of Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails. As a matter of fact, I will never forget the day I had the NIN tape "Broken". (YES, tape. While I did have a working cd player in 1992-3, I could not afford the disk at the time. Yep, it sucked/sucks) It was playing in the background, and I being to lazy to get up and shut off the dead air that was said to reside on the b sideof the Broken EP, only to hear the last two songs jump in and scared the living snot out of me since I had thought it was only dead air. I later read the liner notes my damn self, and found it. Well, that song is SUCK, and Trent originally did it with Pigface. Now that the history lesson is over, I can tell you who was in it this fine evening...Curse Mackey from Evil Mothers, En Esch from KMFDM/Excessive Force, The Enigma (I was in the pit and this blue guy comes out of the shadows in a bright yellow religion robe..who else could it have been???), from The Jim Rose Circus Side Show as well as various acting roles, Diablo from Sheep on Drugs, Levi from My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult, and Hanin Elias from Atari Teenage Riot. I am happy to report that this current line up is even stronger and more diverse than even when I saw them a few years back with FM Einhiet. And just like FM, I must say opening band Nocturne is a band that is both terribly erotic and interesting to listen to. Local band, Ventana were also solid, and the only thing that took away from their performance was the HORRIBLE SOUND at the Odeon. I don't know if the club has a dreadful system or the sound guy was smoking crack, but this plaqued everyone but Pigface (who sounded pretty good, but took so long to fix that Project 44 got booted from the bill). No one felt this pinch worse than Sheep on Drugs. Lee (the bastard) Frazier was literally trying to sing with no monitors, which made him totally deaf to what was going on onstage. I have been in that position before, and the fact that I have not killed someone by now over it is a testimony to my kindness. All in all, if you like anything from house to the metal/industrial crossover stuff, you will most likely enjoy Pigface. The music is solid, the energy is top notch, and the styles not only vary from song to song, but from band to band since Pigface is never the same bunch of people, Pigface never sound exactly the same. This band is sort of an entity that must be seen to be enjoyed to its fullest.

Nocturne were hypnotic, with a real rootsy, heavy/goth style, and were a real treat to behold. Singer Lacey Conner came out dressed in a tux that you simply knew (read as "hoped") was going to come off, and alas it did. She spent the remainder of the show trying not to bounce out of her lingerie. This may have seemed to overshadow the overall performance, good though it was, to some degree since the band and the singer are both very solid and powerful in their own right. The added stage "decor of skin" was not done to hide musical talent as so many sex minded critics of this sort of stage presence may say that it is. Rather, it draws the listener in and gets the mood set in one way, while once entranced the entertainer may take the mood anywhere he or she pleases. Marilyn Manson has been doing this sort of thing for years, and before him Alice Cooper, and before him Cabaret. The only real issue was one of sound, since the vocals were so badly amplified that Lacey Conner had to almost scream out what were obviously movements of music written to be sung, but this again is the fault of the sound staff.

Next up...SHEEP ON DRUGS!!! You must excuse a bit of author bias here. (Hey, like I said, if you want a "professional" article, sign up for the mailing list and I send one out every week. This is me chatting with people who come to my bands' site.) I have been listening to Sheep since about 1996, Daphne and I look forward to every tour, and you could not ask to meet a cooler, more friendly group of people. In late 1996, Dj Nik Popa and some friends from the old but greatly missed B.B. McClains nightclub that was once a haven for the underground headed many hours north to Detroit to see them first time. They were booked at St. Andrews with Orbital, but Orbital was to go at the same time Sheep did downstairs. (duh?) We chose to stay for Sheep on Drugs, and we were not disappointed in any way. There were only about 25 or 30 people there, and then singer Duncan was obviously not very happy with the turnout or the movement of the crowd when he announced "I got a good idea, why don't all just fucking stand there. That is it, just stand there. I could go down the street and open up a crackhouse and be god to you people." He then threw a lit flaming fireworks cone into the crowd since it was on or around July 4. It worked too, since people started dancing about and getting into it. Later on, we knocked on the door of a dressing room that would have made Tatoo claustrophobic, and asked to come in since we had driven to Detroit just to see them. Both Lee and Duncan were amazed that we drove that far and let us back stage. They signed a million things for us; everything from Daphne's leg to the firework that almost blew me up only moments before. And they never forgot us. When some doorman with a power trip in Cleveland tried to hardball us over talking to them, they said "Oh no, that's 'Detroit', they can stay." It was the same when Bagman (Lee's side project) came with Pigface in the late 90's as well. Well, it has been a bit since anything new was released by the gruesome twosome, and Duncan got fed up with the music biz and has dedicated his professional life to the art of tatooing. When work got out via the Sheep on Drugs Christmas card (it said Merry Christmas Punters) that Reverend X Duncan had split, even a diehard Sheep shitter like myself was a bit concerned. After all, Duncan had a voice that was pretty distinctive in that it was somewhat creepy, but rarely harsh, with a thick English accent and a delighfully mocking tone to it. What would they sound like now? I can say that the finished product is still quite solid and worth the cost of the CD for sure. Lee sounds alot like Duncan, who is still his "mate" to quote Lee, and he has chosen to drop the guitar and become what he called "the cunt in the front". In his place was Diablo who triggers the music from various sampling and sequence loop machines. "Fifteen Minutes of Fame" and "Motorbike" sounded as punchy as ever, but the soundman struck again with sound that was so poor that on more than one occassion, Lee had to physically walk into the sound booth and inform the dolt running the sound that he was, by the way, TOTALLY FUCKING DEAF! If I have one simi-critical comment on the band, it is that all of the music is programmed and triggerd live rather than played over minimal loops. Having said that, would you not think that even basic training in sound engineering would teach one to be able to run at least decent sound? I mean, come on now, it is as close to running a juke box as you can get. The crowd was clearly becoming concerned about the quality of sound that would befall the multi-membered Pigface. These fears were put to rest as stated above, but not without the loss of the Project 44 set. Pigface and drummer/Invisible Records headcheese Martin Adkins always bring the best tours to town for the lowest possible price. It was a pleasure to behold, to say the least, even with the sound issues. Special thanks to Project 44 for making this page more interesting by helping me set the below interview up.

SAM I BE- Wonderful to see you again.

LEE- Oh yeah, good to see you as well, It has been awhile,

SAM I BE- Far too long my friend. What has been going on, how is the tour going?

LEE- We are hoping for good things with this CD. This is only the second show of the tour, but so far, so good.

SAM I BE- That is great to hear. Ok, let me ask the question that you are most likely sick to death of, thus getting it out of the way. What happened with Duncan?

LEE- He got sick of the music business. Really, that is it. We're still mates, he is my best friend. He now is dedicated to his tattoo work. He is responsible for all my arm decor. (he shows off his keyboard inspired artwork.)

SAM I BE- Do you think it is a break, sort of a "hiatus done", or is he "DONE done"?

LEE- He is "DONE done"

SAM I BE- So what was the story on that sound tonight?

LEE- Oh my God, it was horrible. This is only the second day, like I said, so we will get the bugs ironed out.

SAM I BE- I did not get the feeling that it was your shortcoming since every band before Pigface had the same issues as well

LEE (smiling)- Nice of you to notice that! I was deaf on stage for the whole set. I could not hear a thing

SAM I BE- You would think that your stripped down set up would be pretty straight forward. What do you use to trigger the set now?

(Diablo and Levi come in the room and hear the question) LEVI- An M16. (he aims an imaginary gun at the floor and starts firing)

SAM I BE- That will make you dance...

LEVI- I can dance like James Brown

SAM I BE- I can dance like James Brown if he was dying

(Levi laughs and leaves making a comment on how Sheeps Steel Reserve Beer sucked)

Therein lies the key with this label and it's bands, they love what they do, they really like each other, and every interview I have ever done with any of them has ended up chaos, and I never have more fun doing an interview.

SAM I BE- So, what do you use Diablo?

DIABLO- Right now it is a combo of sequencers and samplers...well, not entirely. Lee is more of a hardware person, and I am more of a software person. We are trying to incorporate things still.

LEE- We are looking to do some things that involve doing things with my voice, manipulating it and (he starts emulating what it sounds like to cut up and sample vocals in a song)

SAM I BE- Well, I know you guys have an after party at another club, so I shall let you go. Have a wonderful tour my friend. As always, I wish you and Diablo the best

They both thanked me, and I headed out. I did have the good fortune of running into various members of the tour from other bands that were surrounded by alot of fans, so I stuck pretty much to one question, except for poor Curse Mackey who got roped into listening to Passing Time via Dan Yoho who had his MP3 player on him. Curse, if you are reading this, I know you will not believe that was not planned, but I really did not know he still had my band on his MP3 player. In any event, everyone reading this knows that you are cool enough to your fans to actually do that for me. Thanks Curse!.

LEVI- Ooo, you are cute. (he is talking to Daphne who is with me)

SAM I BE- I have met you three or four times, and you say that all the time.

LEVI- If you she was not yours, mmmmm mmmmm. (he is kidding, not being a dick)

SAM I BE- I do not blame you. If she cries out your name in the night, I understand. Those bass chops of yours

LEVI (laughing) Ok, what do I want the world to know. Look out, there is more coming. I am not going anywhere. The future is going to be great, you will see alot

THE ENIGMA wanted the world to " go to Modern Marvels dot com." Ok, in honor of The Enigma, here is the website for Modern Marvels. Modern Marvels DO RIGHT BY THE ENIGMA AND HIT THIS LINK!

I spotted Curse Mackey and asked him how to get labels interested in you when often times, no matter how good the band is, they just never get listened too. (this is why he thinks I planned this I bet...)

CURSE- You have to network and talk to people who are already on labels and get your foot in the door that way.

Well, that is it. "Over, finished, done, gone out," if you know that quote. Thanks to all the bands who helped me with a moment of their time. I hope if you are reading this, you will check out all the mentioned bands. Thanks to Lee and Diablo who gave me their emails to send my music too, and with that your fountain of Weekly what not's signing out...please hit our music download page and join our mailing list atBy clicking here.