THE PSYCHEDELIG FURS: SUGAR CUBES FOR THE NEW DEPRESSION

Richard Butler, the Psychedelic Furs’ chain-smoking vocalist, often sounds like an extremely angry man on record. Some people have compared his raspy voice to a resigned but still enraged Johnny Rotten (though lately he’s turned a bit more towards a Bowie-style croon), while others have labeled him a misanthrope, possibly due to the number of times he referred to people as “stupid” (most critics stopped counting after 15) on the band’s debut LP. Naturally, one might expect to find a sarcastic, venom-spewing malcontent when meeting Butler for the first time, but that’s hardly the person 1 recently spoke to at a Detroit Holiday Inn.

The man behind the voice seems a sensitive individual with a great sense of humor and genuine concern for people. That isn’t to say he doesn’t have his moments. Backstage after the show, I watched him snap “You apparently don’t have much intelligence” at someone he felt had asked a particularly dumb question. • Still, the two ended up on good terms by the time it was all over, and both seemed pleased with the results.