john balance, founding member of coil, is dead at 44.

i was fortunate enough to have talked my way into their show at sonar in 2000, in a small church where the band played a gorgeous set while naked dancers threw huge silver sequins all over the stage and audience - the sound was rapturous, the experience is singular in my mind. i remember thinking that it seemed impossible for a band to conjure up so much in me until then - there was something in the spectacle, the sound that made me feel not scared but unstable, not cold but open; exposed. it was like someone took my thoughts and made them public.