Yes, LYDIA LUNCH is back for a European tour with her greatest Hits band Retrovirus who are made up of superstars of the underground with Weasel Walter on Guitar, Swans' Algis Kizys on Bass and ex-Sonic Youth Bob Bert on Drums. Between them, they have almost played in as many bands as Lydia has fronted.
We arrived while TEENAGE MOTHERS were on playing a set of what sounded like Power punk; quite basic but with plenty of attitude. The second song we heard, about how the singer didn't want to be a slave, was angry enough to be quite cool. They finished with a song called A Land On Miranda which - considering the fuss over David Miranda this week and the fight for Miranda rights -generally seemed pretty spot on the moment. Basically, it was angry Punk with an edge that made them sound a little like Died Pretty crossed with the Celibate Rifles but much quieter than either of those Aussie bands live.
Next on were COMANECHI. As soon as we saw the Japanese girl singer we knew they would be out there and, damn, were they ever out there. The singer has bags of energy and screams with the best of them, initially about how good it is to be alive while the blokes backing her clattered away in a lo-fi punk stylee. But really it's all about the girl and the shapes she threw as she danced and sang and whipped us all up to Make A Move. Well, she certainly made plenty of them! Her effervescence didn't drop a bit even when singing about finding Someone She Can Die For. That one almost had a bit of Shonen Knife about it.
She seemed really angry on the song that featured "Death Of You" as a repeating motif as the guitars scrambled out brains and the drums were set to Pummel. It seemed a good idea to go a bit more upbeat on Love Is All. I think this was when they made the mistake of letting the singer put on a guitar as they really needed her front woman persona more than another guitar. She plays fine but, well, she's more entertaining as a wild, on the loose front woman. However, the Screaming Song did what you'd expect it too.
The last few songs with the singer playing guitar sort of passed me by as all the excitement was taken away. They just need to let her run loose and entertain us.
Without much fanfare it was time for this career spanning retrospective set from Lydia that opened with her going all the way back to Teenage Jesus and the Jerks for (was it?) Red Alert. Either way, it had some great choppy, distorted guitar and Lydia ready to bully her band to get the best out of them. Mechanical Flattery, meanwhile, sounded both sharp and grating in the way Lydia has always managed it.
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I've been listening to this music for over 20 years and still struggle with song titles. On what may well have been Love Split With Blood she was doing her best to put Weasel Walter off as he played another choppy riff and Bob Bert's drums drilled into us. 3 X 3 was introduced as being about Lydia sleeping with John Doe and Exene Cervenka from X and sounded damn good; one of the real highlights in this set. It was followed by Afraid Of Your Company which I'm sure would apply to many more people who were afraid of Lydia's company than vice versa.
Burning Skulls sounded good but nowhere near as good as it did back in the day when I heard her perform it with Rowland S Howard.
Lydia then took a request and they played a just about OK version of Suicide's Frankie Teardrop. Bob Bert's drumming was as close to a machine as possible but Algis Kizys' bass wandered all over the place and Lydia just didn't get intense enough with the lyrics.
Lydia's intro for Gospel Singer included her telling us that Big Sexy Noise do the best version of the song rather than Harry Crews' original and she's right, so why didn't she just do a different Harry Crews song like Man Hates a Man or The Knockout Artist or even She's In A Bad Mood that Bob Bert had a hand in writing!? This version was OK but nothing compared to the Big Sexy Noise version.
What Is It, the Cypress Grove song, was next and Weasel Walter's guitar distorted and ripped at it but it still wasn't quite there. They closed with the tribal drumming and all out nastiness of Black JuJu, including some great screams and wails as the band collided and fought to obliterate all in front of them. They sort of succeeded and by the time it finished and they left the stage, many of us were calling for more. However, at least to a degree we were not as satisfied as if she had played another Big Sexy Noise show.
This gig was good but not up to the standards of Lydia's previous shows. This might be down to the retrospective aspect of the show, but something was missing. Either that or she should have selected different songs to perform from her vast back catalogue.
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