Prowling the Hollywood Palladium stage in a black rubber dress while amped-up dance grooves pulsate around her, Nikkie Van Lierop tosses her hot pink tresses around and shimmies as she presides over the kinky, carnivalesque atmosphere that Lords Of Acid whip up in concert. Before the evening is over,
she gyrates alongside a feline dancer during a number called "Pussy," grinds
lasciviously with a furry pink microphone stand and spanks a member of the
road crew (though she prefers choosing victims from the crowd).
Just about the only subtle thing about the Belgian quintet is its sense of humor; according to Van Lierop the lighter side of S&M is something that eludes most people. "We've been taken too serious for too long," says Van Lierop in a quasi-French accent, sipping tea in a Hollywood hotel the morning after. "That's not
what we're about. The lyrics are just supposed to be funny, and they get taken
too seriously, especially by Americans. But that seems to have changed some
now. For example, radio stations never wanted to play us because of the
lyrics. And then some of them came to watch our show in Chicago and their mouths
dropped open because finally they realized what we were about. More and more
people start to see us as the Spinal Tap of the '90s."
Last night's spankee, a lighting tech named Mike, puts in an appearance to
bid Van Lierop adieu. Lords Of Acid are heading back to Chicago for the
closing night of the tour, but he since lives in Los Angeles, it's the end of
the road for him.
"I hope I didn't hurt you too much last night," Van Lierop says cheerfully.
"I was telling you to hit me," Mike replies good-naturedly. "'Go
ahead!'"
"It's amazing," Van Lierop says jovially. "Everybody wants to be spanked. We've had
some really excellent spanky people on this tour. In the beginning I was all
careful, because that paddle really hurts--it's got leather and studs. But then
as the tour went on I heard complaints from people. 'I didn't feel anything!'
I'm going 'okay'--up to the point where [swinging it] really started to hurt my arm."
Contrary to her raunchy stage persona, Van Lierop says that in real life,
she's a real homebody. She and her husband Danny live in the Belgian
countryside town of Aarschot with their two dogs and she spends her time cooking
and recording music (proto-industrialites Front 242, with whom she's
collaborated in the past, are neighbors, with a studio just down the road). In
addition to extracurricular projects with Digital Orgasm and Channel X (during which time Ruth McArdle took over vocals for Lords),
Van Lierop says she's also recorded a solo album that's "quite sad and dark"--something of a departure from the day-glo sex-fest of Lords Of Acid, which
revolves around a constantly high level of hyper-kinetic dance energy tinged
with a figment of industrial grime.
"It's a nice balance between techno and rock actually," the singer explains.
"I don't like the term 'industrial' because that reminds me too much of Goth and all the dark things. We're not about being dark. We're about being bright
and happy, sexy and funny."
