luckyPRICK

Opening For Legends

By Lea Ann Goertz, Star Staff
Transcribed by Avenpitch

Prick, the opening act for David Bowie and Nine Inch Nails, has been described as bridging the gap between the two headliners' musical styles or eras.

"I think that's pretty accurate," said Prick guitarist Chris Schleyer, taking some time out for an interview after Nine Inch Nails' set. "Kevin (McMahon, frontman for the band) has been doing this a long time and his influences are T-Rex, David Bowie, the whole '70s glam thing."

"A lot of the kids that are into Nails have checked us out just because we're on Nothing Records, and because Trent was involved in producing part of the record, so I can see how they would say that there's a bridging of the gap between the two," Schleyer said. The record he is speaking of is Prick's self-titled debut album, released earlier this year. It was produced in part by Nine Inch Nail's Trent Reznor, a longtime friend of McMahon's. In fact, Reznor filled in on keyboards for a while in McMahon's band, Lucky Pierre, back in '89.

After listening to the contorted vocals and distorted chords of the album, I was unsure of how the band's sound would translate in a live performance.

I can honestly say that I was blown away. McMahon has a large, powerful stage presence and his vocals rang out with a smooth sexuality, especially during "Communique" and the radio favorite, "Animal."

Some of you may be familiar with Prick because of its video for "Animal," on regular rotation on MTV. It features flashing images of exotic animals, birds and people in a metallic half-circle room, with Prick's lead vocalist evoking the image of a large, dark bird perched on a swing.

"I think he just wanted to point out that we're humans and we're animals at the same time, and the similarities between certain animals and humans," Schleyer said. "Like when they flash between a lion and this old man with a big, long scraggly beard. It definitely has a humorous aspect."

Humor and irony come into play in the songs' lyrics as well.

Songwriter Mcmahon likes to play with the different meanings for certain words, and the lyrics are not printed on the album's sleeve so that people will not take them too literally.

"He wants people to think about what they're hearing and kind of get their own definitions of what it means," Schleyer said.

The same applies to the name of the band itself. Schleyer points out that the word "prick" appears in the bible and in Shakespeare and was chosen in hopes that people "would think about it more than just going to the slang definition of the word."

Even so, the band must get tired of the endless puns on the name. "It gets old, the jokes and what everybody says, but at least it works," Schleyer said. "It's doing something because if it didn't people wouldn't be thinking about it that much ... it kind of grabs you, the word `Prick'."

Yes, it does, and so does the band's music and lyrics. They grab you and pull you in, showing you just enough of the familiar hooks of classic pop tunes, but never letting you get quite comfortable or giving any easy answers or labels.

Prick was also a part of last summer's Sextasy Ball Tour, with Lords of Acid and My Life with the Thrill Kill Cult, and will continue to tour in support of their album after the David Bowie tour wraps up, but the band is anxious to get back into the studio.

"On the last record, it was basically Kevin and the producer in the studio, whether it was Trent on half the record or Warne Livesey, the producer that produced the other half," Schleyer said.

"This next record that we do, hopefully it will have more of a band feel to it. I think we've finally gotten the right people in the band. We went through some changes, but I think we finally have the right chemistry," Schleyer continued.

And are there any wild anecdotes of backstage sin and debauchery to tell?

Unfortunately not.

"It's been a really mellow tour, nothing crazy's really happened," Schleyer said.

"I don't know if it's because everybody has so much respect for David Bowie that we're all behaving ourselves too well or what ... we've only trashed one dressing room so far."