TRIBE CALLED QUEST | JOÃO GILBERTO | BUTTHOLE SURFERS | B-52’S
STEELY DAN | ALAN AND RICHARD BISHOP | GEORGE MICHAEL | “KIDD” JORDAN
WIRE | TEENAGE JESUS & THE JERKS | THE FEELIES | CHARLIE HADEN | YAZ
THE EX WITH GÉTATCHÈW MÈKURYA | RHYS CHATHAM | JUDAS PRIEST

Teenage Jesus and the Jerks

Knitting Factory; June 13, $25

Landmark achievement: Both a poet and a contrarian by nature, Lydia Lunch’s savagely intense No Wave group refuted punk and all forms of rock tradition with dissonant, disciplined shards of guitar and vocals, in songs often less than 60 seconds long and sets as short as ten minutes. In just three years of the late ’70s, the group left a wound on NYC music history that is still raw.

Why see them now: This one-night-only performance—with Lunch, former bassist Jim Sclavunos now on drums and a surprise-guest bassist—is in conjunction with a new oral history, No Wave: Post-Punk. Underground. New York. 1976–1980., coedited by Thurston Moore and Byron Coley, as well as a forthcoming compilation of Teenage Jesus and Lunch’s other bands. There’s no reason to doubt the severity in store: Through years of fiery writing, music and spoken word, Lunch has never failed to deliver. “Teenage Jesus remains a gut-busting primal scream meant to attack complacency and stagnation via an explosion of violent aural confrontation,” she explains—and we cannot wait for it to go off.