The women who went where even punk failed to go
During the financial crisis that rocked New York in 1977, a raw, short-lived artistic movement emerged — one that had no chance of breaking out of the underground — reaching places that even punk failed to go. “No Wave was brutal,” summarizes Adele Bertei, one of the promoters of that chaos orchestrated by musicians, filmmakers, and visual artists. “We had read [Antonin] Artaud’s The Theater and Its Double, a book that already spoke of electronic instruments that would make piercing sounds before electric guitars proliferated. It was also very theatrical.” Newly arrived in the city, Bertei had found her place in a scene that acted as a successor to the Ramones and Talking Heads. She played keyboards with The Contortions, acted in several underground films, and ended up founding The Bloods, the first all-lesbian band to proclaim their identity at a time when it was common to keep it hidden.
