Tammy Faye Starlite to Become Nico Again
Hoboken chanteuse Tammy Faye Starlite is gearing up for another run as Nico this spring in a new show—Nico: Underground—set for Joe’s Pub in New York City May 1, 8, 15 & 22. No one does Nico like Tammy Faye.
Rock History 101
In 1964, in the midst of the British Invasion, New York City provocateurs The Velvet Underground formed: singer-guitarist Lou Reed, guitarist Sterling Morrison, multi-instrumentalist John Cale and drummer Angus MacLise. Moe Tucker replaced MacLise in ’65. They specialized in avant-garde experimental alternative sound, ultimately becoming one of the most influential American bands on attitude alone. They were punk before punk-rock existed. In ’66, visual artist/film director/producer Andy Warhol became their manager, cementing their rep as outlaw visionaries. When German cabaret singer Nico [1938-1988] joined, their debut album, 1967’s The Velvet Underground & Nico, with a Warhol painting of a banana on the cover, changed everything. At least for hipsters.
Starlite channels Nico to inhabit all of her eccentricities. From her acerbic humor to her drop-dead transcendence of material by Lou Reed, Jim Morrison, Jackson Browne (whom Nico nurtured when he was a mere teen), David Bowie, Rodgers & Hart, Gordon Lightfoot, Bob Dylan and, of course, Nico, Starlite has already received raves when she took this on the road in L.A., Palm Springs, Provincetown and Pittsburgh. Backed by acoustic and electric guitars, drums, keyboards, violin, sax and flute, with questions by “interviewer” Jeff Ward, and answers taken from actual Nico responses, the result is magic.
For tickets and further information: https://publictheater.org/productions/joes-pub/2024/t/tammy-faye-starlite/
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