On May 19, Anthology Film Archives (AFA) celebrated its 40th anniversary with a benefit show featuring Lou Reed, Sonic Youth, The Virgins and my own band with underground film auteur Kenneth Anger, Technicolor Skull. They also presented Kenneth Anger with lifetime achievement award. AFA, which has been run since its inception by filmmaker Jonas Mekas, is an essential part of downtown New York and has supported underground filmmakers since it’s beginning in the late 60s. In fact, this was the first place I was able to see Kenneth Anger’s films projected on 16mm. It was great to see this collection of artists come together to support such an important cause.

Sonic Youth hit the stage with an eclectic set that gave a hint of the feedback, noise and mayhem that was to come later. Next was Lou Reed who played Metal Machine style grinding noise guitar to a Maya Deren film projection. Following this, Kenneth Anger was summoned and we walked onto the stage to begin our ritual of light and sound, with a little help from the strange dragon’s head smoke machine looming above. The moment I picked up my flying-V guitar, it went into an insane ring-modulated feedback loop as the screen behind us flashed scenes from Lucifer Rising – Anger’s cue to begin his hypnotic theremin assault upon the room. Another successful invocation of the demon brother!

Find out more about the Anthology Film Archives HERE