Premier Arts & Entertainment Coverage

Lydia Lunch Performs The Songs Of Suicide And Alan Vega With Andrew Coates

LYDIA LUNCH, TOGETHER WITH BLACK CAB’S ANDREW COATES, WILL PERFORM THE SONGS OF NEW YORK CITY’S LEGENDARY ELECTRONIC EXPERIMENTAL DUO SUICIDE AND ITS LATE VOCALIST ALAN VEGA IN AUSTRALIA IN JUNE TO COMMEMORATE THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF VEGA’S PASSING

New York No Wave Queen Lydia Lunch returns to Australia to perform the songs of synth–punk duo Suicide and Suicide vocalist Alan Vega.

Lydia will be joined on stage by Andrew Coates of revered Melbourne electro trio, Black Cab to commemorate the tenth anniversary of Alan Vega’s passing, with special guests. (The Melbourne show will actually feature both principals of Black Cab – Andrew Coatesand James Lee.)

Lunch originally met Suicide – the duo of late vocalist Alan Vega and multi-instrumentalist Martin Rev – in the 1970s, when Lunch moved to New York City from Rochester as a teenager. She formed a lifelong bond with the pair, often joining them on-stage to perform the song ‘Frankie Teardrop’ and recording a duet as part of Vega’s solo album Sniper, a collaboration with French experimental artist Marc Hurtado. Since Vega’s passing in 2016, Lunch has performed several Suicide tribute shows, most often with Hurtado; together the pair recently released the live album Metempsychosis: Reincarnate the Music of Alan Vega + Suicide.

Having previously never performed the show in Australia, Lydia surprised fans on a night off in Melbourne during her 2024 Spoken Word tour with an impromptu appearance at the Tote, backed by acclaimed Melbourne electronic duo Black Cab. It sold out in 3 days so she decided to bring it back for Vega’s anniversary in 2026, working again with Black Cab‘s Andrew Coates.

Passionate, sexual, confrontational and bold, Lunch, Vega and Rev are all cut from the same grimy cloth of 1970s New York. This show is more than a tribute. It’s an offering.

LYDIA LUNCH
PERFORMS THE SONGS OF SUICIDE AND ALAN VEGA
featuring Andrew Coates (Black Cab)
AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND – JUNE 2026

Sun 14 June – Meow, Wellington, NZ (as part of Lōemis)
Wed 17 June – The Tote, Melbourne (with Black Cab)
Sat 20 June – Brisbane Powerhouse, Brisbane
Sun 21 June – Factory Floor, Sydney
Wed 24 June – Ed Castle, Adelaide
Thurs 25 June – The Milk Bar, Perth

On sale Monday March 30th at 9:00AM AEDT
via pressplaypresents.com

Lydia Lunch:

“A truly extraordinary artist” – Anthony Bourdain (on Lydia Lunch)

Passionate, confrontational and bold. Whether attacking the patriarchy and their pornographic war mongering, turning the sexual into political or whispering a love song to the broken hearted, Lydia Lunch’s fierce energy and rapid-fire delivery lend testament to her warrior nature.

Queen of No Wave, muse of The Cinema of Transgression, Lydia Lunch has released too many musical projects to tally, has been on tour for decades, has published dozens of articles, half a dozen books and simply refuses to just shut up. She performs in a variety of mediums and continues to release new music as well as re-issuing classic material from her vast catalogue of written and musical works.

A rabid collaborator, Lunch has famously worked with the likes of Nick Cave, Rowland S. Howard, Henry Rollins, Sonic Youth, Einstürzende Neubauten among others. Her decades long career is the subject of a recent feature length documentary Lydia Lunch: The War is Never Over.

Andrew Coates:

Andrew Coates is the co-founder of Melbourne electronic group Black Cab. Its sound has ranged from psychedelic kraut rock to driving electronica, often drawing inspiration from Europe and American culture of the ’70’s and ’80’s. The group has released six full-length albums (Altamont Diary, Jesus East, Call Signs (featuring guest, Ron Peno from Died Pretty), Games of the 21st Olympiad and an original score to cult Anime’ film Akira) plus 2022’s Rotsler’s Rules. In 2013, they performed Suicide’s first album in its entirety for Pure Pop’s “Summer of Classic Albums”. They reprised it in 2020 to support Lydia Lunch and eventually backed her in 2024 as she performed the Suicide/ Alan Vegashow as a one off in Melbourne 2024. In addition to Lydia Lunch, they have shared the stage with Tangerine Dream, Brian Jonestown Massacre, Damo Suzuki and Ratatat among others and performed at Golden Plains, Sugar Mountain, Paradise Festival, NGV, GoMA, White Night Festival and Supersense Festival of the Ecstatic at Melbourne’s Arts Centre.