Back in the sterile, pastel '80s, it was the music of Nash the Slash that thrilled me the most. His stage gimmick was compelling, of course--he always performed in bandages à la Claude Rains in THE INVISIBLE MAN--but what snared me was the way Nash sawed away at his electric violin like a frenzied madman as he produced his sparkling, rippling arpeggios, sounds that were beautiful, tormented, exultant, transcendent... But Nash's distinctively sharp, incisive sense of humor and unbridled play infused his work and gave it an edge that no one else had. Nash toured with Iggy Pop in the early days, and when Gary Numan saw him playing at a Toronto club, he dumped his support band and immediately tapped Nash for his 1981 Pleasure Principle Tour. I went up and down the timeline to highlight Nash the Slash's panoply of styles, drawing from not only his body of musical work but also from his cantankerously argumentative interviews and recorded bits of weirdness from his days with the Canadian prog-rock band FM. I only wish I could have painted a better picture of him as his character from SAVAGE HENRY--but thanks to the available soundbites, tonight I am able to conjure Nash the Slash from the embrace of his tomb to paint the ether with slashes of sonic brilliance. And I saved one song for the very end of the show, simply because it made me cry like a little hurt bitch as listened to it. We all should feel a sense of loss here, because as you'll hear tonight, this man left us marvelous gifts...Nash the Slash painted future fairytale nightmares with carnival colors to light up our world with a radiant, gleeful darkness. And damn, I am going to miss the hell out of him for it.
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