Anja Huwe walked onto the stage at Le Poisson Rouge on Bleecker Street in Manhattan looking like she had just stepped out of some glamourous midnight ambush: fluffy black jacket, leather pants, killer heeled boots, and those famous ice-blue eyes staring out over the room with the kind of cool, electric poise that can still make a crowd forget its own name. This was the triumphant kickoff of her first North American tour in forty years…which is the sort of sentence that sounds unreal even when you’re standing there watching it happen, drink in hand, shoulder to shoulder with a room full of devotees.
After a thrilling intro, the band tore into Boomerang, and just like that, all historical reverence got kicked to the curb in favour of the far better business of being gloriously, physically present. Huwe sounded as robust as ever, particularly considering she was fighting off a bad cold, and there was something almost absurdly thrilling about hearing her voice. Huwe proved her legacy was never preserved in amber or propped up by nostalgia; nor gingerly handling old glories like museum pieces, but alive, kicking, and swinging a belt around the stage.
Flanked by Mona Mur (and Tom Ashton of The March Violets), the set moved beautifully between material from Codes and the Xmal Deutschland canon, making a convincing case that this wasn’t some heritage lap or victory crawl through old headlines. Songs like Living in the Forest, Pariah, Exit, and Rabenschwarz carried the newer material with a fierce, tensile grace, while Xmal staples like Geheimnis, Allein, Young Man, Augen-blick, Eisengrau, Autumn, Polarlicht, Incubus Succubus, and Qual arrived like dispatches from a parallel era where post-punk could still sound dangerous, theatrical, and weirdly elegant all at once. Eden, the Mod Con cover, slipped in like a sly little detour, and Sleep With One Eye Open had the room leaning forward as if the floor itself had become conductive.
Huwe, who stepped away from music after Xmal Deutschland’s distinguished run to focus on visual art and painting, has spoken about being haunted for years by the legend of the band and by endless requests to return, all of which she refused until recently. Maybe that’s part of what made this show feel so exciting and fresh: there was none of that grim ceremonial duty that so often dogs long-awaited returns. She was genuinely delighted to be there, dancing, trading energy with her bandmates, cracking little jokes with the audience before snapping back into business with the easy authority of one who knows exactly how much mischief and majesty a room can take.
At one point, she brought out a Polaroid camera and started taking photos of the audience, handing the pictures out to ecstatic fans like party favours from a beautifully strange aunt who had just descended from another dimension. Sacred Bones cohorts were spotted in the crowd, appropriately reverent but also visibly thrilled, because Codes, her first solo album for the label, has helped complete this restoration in a wonderfully organic way. That record, shaped in collaboration with Mona Mur and sharpened by the return of Manuela Rickers’ guitar presence, carries the same hard emotional line that always made Huwe so powerful. Live, you could hear that continuum clearly: the old material still bristling, the newer songs seamlessly blending in perfectly.
By the end of the night, Huwe admitted she was having some vocal trouble, and you could hear the strain around the edges. But then came the encore, Orient, followed by a second run through Mondlicht, and if there was any fragility in the moment, it only made everything hit harder. The audience happily, loudly and gratefully erupted in pogo dancing and a delightful singalong.
Anja was then generous enough to spend the end of the evening signing treasures and taking selfies with her fans. It was truly heartwarming to behold.
Listen to Codes below and order the album here.
Catch Anja Huwe on tour through the rest of March and early April:
- March 21, 2026 — Chicago, IL — Epiphany Center for the Arts — Tickets
- March 22, 2026 — San Francisco, CA — Great American Music Hall — Tickets
- March 25, 2026 — Los Angeles, CA — 1720 — Tickets
- March 28, 2026 — Mexico City, MX — Mesones72 — Tickets
- March 29, 2026 — San José, Costa Rica — Amon Solar — Tickets
- April 1, 2026 — Costa Rica – Ardan Goth Festival
- April 3, 2026 — Lima, Peru
- April 4, 2026 — São Paulo, Brazil
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