Character Analysis
Vitaly—who's named himself after the Chernobyl crisis—heads up a band called the Meltdowns, which is characterized as "a new musical phenomenon—the rise of Ukrainian nuclear fuzz-grunge collectives in L.A" (3.19). He is also fantastically broke; his only possessions are "half a carton of Lucky Strikes, an electric guitar, and a hangover" (3.4). Should keep touring pretty simple.
Vitaly sports a hairdo that "has been petrified by means of egg whites and other proteins" (13.12), a classic punk technique to get mohawks and similarly outlandish hairstyles to behave. Yet while Vitaly clearly spends a lot of time on his hair, he doesn't necessarily take care of the rest of his body: "Vitaly's eyes are dry and red, and on his lower lip he is sporting a chancre the size of a tangerine" (13.16). It comes with the territory of being a musician, we guess.
With song titles like "My Heart Is a Smoking Hole in the Ground," it seems like Vitaly's particular brand of punk rock describes the current urban condition. Perhaps that's why it's so popular with Kouriers, who pack his concerts.