On September 16, an attack on the listeners' senses was launched at the UV club in Łódź - an "acoustic blitzkrieg", as it was noted in the description of the event. Lydia Lunch, one of the leading figures of the New York no wave movement, an eternal rebel and the queen of counterculture, together with Marc Hurtado, a French musician and versatile artist, performed in the repertoire of the legendary Alan Vega
Author: Justyna Wróblewska
Both Lunch and Hurtado were friends and collaborators with the iconic Suicide , and in 2014 they joined forces to celebrate his work. The task was difficult to say the least, because Suicide's distinctive style seems impossible to imitate, and any attempt at a cover may be considered a profanation. But who would do it if not these two provocateurs?
The crowd was great that day, filling the UV club to capacity. Lunch appears on stage, dressed in black, and Hurtado, hiding behind dark glasses, whose presence and stage movement make me think of German EBM musicians. From the first seconds, our ears are attacked by the chaotic intro and Lydia's rough vocals. She is no longer the same young punk girl with a child-adult voice. The singer uses two microphones, and an apocalyptic message pours out from the speakers, exaggerated by the artist's screams, moans and stage coldness. Hurtado and Lunch interpreted the synth-punk sounds of Suicide in their own way, creating a much noisier, but equally uncompromising performance. Deep bass vibrations, repetitive beat, samples imitating the sound of an engine, flashing lights - the audience immediately falls into a trance.
A good move is to ask people to hide their phones - this way you can enjoy the performance and absorb it without having to watch the forest of hands recording videos with smartphones. So you'll have to excuse the lack of photos from the concert. Telephonosis, one of the greatest diseases of our times, is pointed out by Lydia, shouting slogans about the omnipresent control that we allow ourselves to be subjected to via social media. I'm like a one-woman protest machine - as the artist said about herself. There are no breaks between the songs (except when Lunch has to drink from the bottle), the sounds blend into a whole. Beautiful, controlled chaos.
The concert is dominated by songs from the cult first album "Suicide" - the most radical and confrontational work of Vega and Martin Reva. The beginning of the set with songs such as "Girl" or "Touch Me" sounds like a prelude building tension before a really hard blow. It comes with "Viet Vet" , an anti-establishment manifesto about social inequality and the abandonment of veterans who "used up" during the war to their fate.
He's a wasted, he's a worn
Don't shoot
Don't shoot
You owe me a debt
The gloomy, trance-like arrangement and slogans shouted angrily by Lunch ( There's no glory in war! ) create the atmosphere of a moving anti-war happening. The atmosphere is maintained by "Sniper" , "Rocket USA" and Vega's most famous song - "Ghost Rider" . Suicide's politically and socially engaged lyrics, combined with Lydia's aggressive screams and Hurtado's energetic expression, are convincing. For a moment, the audience may feel like rebellious American youth during the Vietnamese protests - The war is never over!
Baby baby baby he's screamin' the truth
America America's killing its youth
And finally, the cherry on the cake - "Frankie Teardrop" , a more aggressive, even more psychedelic version. The distorted sound, creaks, hum, explosions of noise and the characteristic leitmotif are hypnotizing, giving the composition a new dimension. Frankie's gonna kill his kid. Frankie picked up a gun - recites the touching lyrics of Lunch, and scenes from the movie "Combat Shock" (1986) appear before my eyes. After the song ends, Lydia leaves the stage. There will be no encore, the audience slowly wakes up from the trance to focus on their own reflections.
Lydia Lunch official: https://www.facebook.com/LydiaLunch
