I wish this Kinky Friedman poster didn’t have to be in every shot I take at Abilene but I’m digressing already. Lydia Lunch returned to the town she grew up in and took charge of the place. She stopped her performance, the way Joni Mitchell did her when she played with Bob Dylan, and pointed her fingers at a bunch that were talking loudly at he bar and told them to shut the fuck up! And they did. Like I said, she takes charge.
She recited and read over low volume ambient tracks, Sonic Youth-like rumblings or free jazz, but she sounded best when she killed that and went solo. She has not changed in all these years and her bleak but funny world view seems more pertinent than ever. She was riveting.
Phil Marshal followed Lydia with a different band from his last appearance. Same drummer of course, his son Roy, but Dave Arenas on stand-up bass and Mike Kaupa on trumpet. We had heard Kaupa in a trio setting at the Little. The band was doing standards but Kaupa is such a great player you can’t take your ears off him. He sounded fantastic with Phil sampling his lines, playing them back and then playing on top of it all. This band spun Phil’s songs in a looser, rich and deep fashion, a picture big enough to feature Rick Petrie’s poetry in a few pieces. A most rewarding night.
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