Michael Dent

Michael Dent has been a brash and bristling voice in popular culture since the late 1970s.
He got his start at Toronto's and Canada's first punk club, the Crash 'N Burn, as the
drummer for The Dents, in 1977.
Following that, he booked bands for the culturally iconic, but long-gone, Beverley
Tavern from 1985 to 1987, giving such bands as Cowboy Junkies their first gigs.
As a sound tech, he went on to work with such musical innovators as Nash the Slash and
Art Bergmann.
ln 1992,Dent returned to the stage as a spoken word artist, a forum he continues to use to
this day to relentlessly question his own, and our culture's, shadow sides.
That same year, intrigued by the visiting industrial circus Archaos, Dent found his way
into the tutelage of the company's firebreathing master Pascalito Vuonet, and performed
for them under the big top.
Soon after, he showcased these firebreathing skills in a succession of music videos, all
made in 1993, for the bands The Headstones (1/'s All Over), directed by Bruce
MacDonald; 13 Engines (Smoke and Ashes), directed by Floria Sigismondi; and for
Death and Horror Incorporated (New Vision), directed by D.H.I.
During this prolific period, Dent explored the visual arts, using...

grade 12