Flaming September

35 years ago, in the days when Rolling Stone first proclaimed St. Ann’s “the guiding light in New York’s avant-rock scene,” Marianne Faithfull performed and recorded her comeback concert and record, Blazing Away, at the Church of St. Ann & the Holy Trinity in Brooklyn Heights. New York cabaret and performance legend Justin Vivian Bond—a 2024 MacArthur Fellow and a recent recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from Bard—will bring St. Ann’s Warehouse back to the church for the first time in 25 years.

While living her own life of “drag, drugs, death, desire, and ambition” in San Francisco in 1990, Bond recalled, “‘Someday, I’m going to move to New York and perform at St. Ann’s Church.’ I promised myself after listening to Blazing Away. By some glorious twist of fate St. Ann’s Warehouse and St. Ann’s Church have decided to work together once more. I pounced! The dream I thought was lost has suddenly become possible.”

This will be Bond’s first U.S. performance of Marianne’s music since she passed away, or as Bond puts it, “ascended to join her alter ego in the sky—God—and, at least in my mind, she’s in charge now.” Bond here focuses on performing songs Faithfull recorded in the years after Blazing Away. Bond explains, “As an artist, I’ve created my own persona by ‘wandering through’ the spirits of those whom I adore and hopefully reflecting some of their stardust.”