Experimental punk artist Lydia Lunch brings spoken word tour to Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO -- Noted noise-punk pioneer and writer Lydia Lunch returns to the Bay Area this weekend with her latest spoken word tour making three stops in Palo Alto, Albany and San Francisco.
A renowned writer, musician and punk provocateur, Lunch got her start as the guitarist and singer of pioneering NYC noise/no wave band Teenage Jesus and the Jerks -- a group she started with James Chance, who would later form the Contortions and James White and the Blacks -- Lunch was at the epicenter of the city's underground experimental music scene in the late '70s. She would also become the frequent subject of no-wave documentary and avant-garde filmmakers Vivienne Dick and Scott B and Beth B.
Lunch would go on to release a string of solo recordings, collaborating with the likes of Nick Cave and the Birthday Party, LA-based punk band the Weirdos, Swans guitarist Michael Gira and members of Sonic Youth, as well as establishing herself as a poet and an important figure on New York's spoken word and performance art landscape.
While Lunch has focused more of her later career on spoken word and writing, She returned to music with a vengeance in the past decade when she started fronting her all-star aggregation Lydia Lunch Retrovirus. Featuring powerhouse drummer Bob Bert (Pussy Galore, Chrome Cranks Sonic Youth), bassist Tim Dahl of the NYC experimental noise band Child Abuse and free jazz/noise guitarist Weasel Walter (The Flying Luttenbachers, Burmese, Cellular Chaos), the high-octane group has toured on both sides of the Atlantic to great acclaim and released several live recordings. The current line-up of the band has improv/experimental jazz drummer Kevin Shea (Storm and Stress, Coptic Light) performing in Bert's stead.
Lunch was also the subject of the powerful 2019 documentary film Lydia Lunch: The War Is Never Over directed by Beth B. An unflinching look at Lunch's full career of incendiary art -- and the childhood traumas that helped inspire her creations -- the film is essential viewing for anyone interested in the groundbreaking NYC scene of the late '70s.
Lunch has visited San Francisco regularly of late, appearing at a Roxy Theater screening for the film in 2021 as well as a spoken word engagement at the Make-Out Room with author and Oxbow frontman Eugene Robinson and Bay Area author Bob Calhoun. She has since returned several times with the Retrovirus, playing an explosive headlining set at the Great American Music Hall that fall with Oxbow and Victims Family in addition to an appearance at the Halloween Meltdown in Oakland's Mosswood Park last year.
For her current spoken word tour "Murderous...Again" -- described as "psycho-ambient jazz noir meets pathological poetry" -- Lunch will be accompanied by Retrovirus bassist Dahl and saxophonist Matt Nelson. For her appearance at the Mitchell Park Community Center Saturday night, Robinson opens the show with a hometown solo spoken word performance, reading excerpts from his forthcoming memoir "A Walk Across Dirty Water Straight Into Murderer's Row" set to be published by Feral House in late August. On Sunday, the tour stops for an afternoon matinee at the Ivy Room in Albany with support from legendary avant-garde composer and percussionist William Wynant (John Cage, Frank Zappa, Marc Ribot, Sonic Youth, Mr. Bungle, John Zorn) and KLANG!! -- the improv project of guitarist Myles Boisen (Splatter Trio, John Zorn, Tom Waits) with drummer Jordan Glenn (Fred Frith Trio) and acoustic bassist Safa Shokrai (Lost Shapes) -- before moving to San Francisco's Mission District at the Make-Out Room for a 7 p.m. show. There the headliner is joined for the spoken word debuts of burlesque performers Dottie Lux and Harvest Moon. The tour will also stop at the Starlet Room above Harlow's in Sacrament on July 20th.
Lydia Lunch: Murderous...Again
Saturday, July 15, 8 p.m. $25
Mitchell Park Community Center
Sunday, July 16, 3 p.m. $15-$20
The Ivy Room
Sunday, July 16, 6 p.m. $12
The Make-Out Room
