Before Courtney Love and Brody Dalle there was Lydia Lunch. With her late-1970s New York band Teenage Jesus and the Jerks and later collaborating with the likes of the Birthday Party, she defined the idea of the confrontational female in a baby doll dress. The bands have been replaced by an iBook and a saxophonist but the unique edge remains. "Thanks for leaving your bedroom and coming into mine," is her opening line.
People have been drawn to this rare UK visit by the promise of Lunch's harrowing essays on everything from sex and feminism to masturbation, so it's a surprise to find the vixen in playful mood. In a black outfit that could have been bought from the 19th-century prostitute's equivalent of Top Shop, she describes visiting an all-night strip club and getting "so excited, we burn it down" - presumably an average Lunch night on the town. Moments later, she's taking on the persona of a female stalker with such accuracy you fear for anyone in her address book. However, these are delivered with a grin. When the 45-year-old snaps: "The party's over, we're getting serious," she becomes a siren leading everybody into the heart of darkness.
With ace saxophonist Terry Edwards sounding like the QE2 docking, Lunch lays into the masculinity of war and God and champions the threat of womanhood.
These are songs born of black moods and angry skies, but they are somehow uplifting because of her confrontation of the utmost horror. "We're all going to be orphaned by the storm, and the earth never misses a loss," she screams, with all the dread of the Doors' The End, before turning to Iraq and Afghanistan and questioning why images of women and children walking to the border - "any border" - never make it to our screens. By the time she leaves, she has single-handedly demolished the argument that music has lost its power to unsettle and inform, but she has one last quip. "You're not going home with me," she admonishes. The first four rows thank their lucky stars.
· At Cosies Wine Bar, Bristol (0117 9424110), on Thursday and the Cavern Club, Exeter (01392 495370), on April 26.
