Industrial sludge masters Skinny Puppy will tour North America for the first time in three years, beginning May 25. The group–originally from Vancouver but now based in L.A.–has an output that spans two decades, 12 albums, and yet another album on the way. The live show will no doubt feature Puppy staples like Budd Dwyer’s suicide video, mock vivisection, and mutants on stilts.

With music heavily influenced by the late-’70s and early ’80s UK experimental electronic scenes, Skinny Puppy’s sound was specifically characterized by processed, buzz-saw guitars, distorted drum programming, and extreme layering. Like the fascist, horror-themed aesthetic of many industrial and metal groups, the band’s confrontational imagery has often been mistaken for an endorsement of those concepts rather than an implicit critique.

Various drug addictions and the death of bandmate Dwayne Goettel facilitated Skinny Puppy’s demise in the mid-’90s, which seemed permanent until 2003. This latest tour should satiate dark impulses of both the young and old from state to state.

Tour Dates
05/24 Santa Cruz, CA: The Catalyst
05/25 Portland, OR: Crystal Ballroom
05/27 Boise, ID: The Big Easy
05/29 Salt Lake City, UT: The Depot
05/30 Denver, CO: Ogden Theatre
06/1 Chicago, IL: House of Blues
06/2 Detroit, MI: St. Andrew’s Hall
06/3 Cleveland, OH: Agora Theatre
06/5 Toronto, ON: Kool Haus
06/6 Montreal, QC: Le Spectrum
06/7 Boston, MA: Avalon Ballroom
06/8 Philadelphia, PA: Electric Factory
06/9 New York, NY: Nokia Theatre
06/11 Washington, DC: 9:30 club
06/12 Baltimore, MD: Sonar
06/14 Atlanta, GA: Center Stage
06/15 New Orleans, LA: House of Blues
06/16 Houston, TX: Warehouse Live
06/17 Dallas, TX: House of Blues
06/19 Tempe, AZ: Marquee Theatre
06/21 San Francisco, CA: The Fillmore
06/22 Los Angeles, CA: Henry Fonda Theatre
06/23 Los Angeles, CA: Henry Fonda Theatre
06/24 Anaheim, CA: House of Blues