Anja Huwe of Xmal Deutschland Announces First North American Tour in 40 Years

Anja Huwe has announced a long-awaited return to North America in March 2026—bringing a live set that draws from her solo work while reaching back into the fierce lineage of Xmal Deutschland, one of the most enigmatic and influential names to emerge from Germany’s early-’80s post-punk movement

For longtime devotees, the news lands with extra weight: Xmal Deutschland did not tour North America often. Their stateside appearances in the mid-1980s were brief but mythic—most famously their 1984 stop at New York’s Danceteria, followed by a final West Coast run in December of 1985 (San Francisco’s Mabuhay Gardens and Los Angeles’ The Palace). Decades later, Huwe’s 2026 dates finally reopen that transatlantic thread.

Among the bands to have graced 4AD’s revered orbit, few burned with the same unplaceable intensity as Xmal Deutschland. Formed in Hamburg in 1981 by a group of self-taught upstarts, they arrived with a voracious, unyielding drive—an aesthetic of flamboyant hair and kohl-rimmed eyes that mirrored the dual nature of their sound: relentless energy tempered by a strange finesse. Though they emerged from the broader Neue Deutsche Welle moment—sharing a lineage with DAF and Einstürzende Neubauten—they resisted easy classification, sidestepping “goth” or “gothic rock” in favor of a sharper, more accurate term: post-punk.

Their ascent crystallized in 1982 with the release of the “Incubus Succubus” single, and that same year a pivotal London performance opening for the Cocteau Twins pulled them into an eager avant-garde audience. Soon after, their relocation to London and subsequent embrace by 4AD set the fuse. The first two albums—1983’s Fetisch and 1984’s Tocsin—arrived like twin impact events, reshaping the contours of the international post-punk scene with a cold clarity that still cuts through today.

The band’s formative line-up—Caro May, Rita Simonsen, Manuela Rickers, Fiona Sangster, and Anja Huwe—embodied punk’s audacious break from traditional mores: they ventured into music without the trappings of prior experience, simply because the moment demanded it. A twist of fate during the recording of the early single “Schwarze Welt” pushed Huwe—initially the bass player—into the role of lead vocalist. “The only condition from my side [was that] I will never perform onstage,” she later recalled. “Two months later, they made me without ever telling me up front. I had no choice.”

From there, Xmal Deutschland’s arc spanned four albums—two with 4AD, followed by 1987’s Viva, which expanded their reach and achieved further international success, and 1989’s Devils, released after a key line-up shift. While the band’s image was often framed by media fascination—an “all-female” ensemble later playfully amended with the arrival of Wolfgang Ellerbrock, jokingly dubbed the “token male”—Huwe has always emphasized the deeper force at work: a self-contained circle of friends, fiercely committed to their own unconventional way of being. “We were like paradise birds,” she once said. “We were enough for ourselves.”

Following Xmal Deutschland’s distinguished run and split in the early 1990s, Huwe shifted her creative focus toward visual art and painting, stepping away from the musical stage even as the legend refused to fade. “Since the split… I have been haunted by the ‘Legend of Xmal Deutschland’ and never-ending requests from all over the world, all of which I always turned down,” she admitted—until recent years finally made her refusals yield to return.

Photo by Nastya Platinova

And a flurry of archival restoration and renewed activity has anchored that return. Sacred Bones helped bring essential material back into circulation with Early Singles (1981–1982), expanded with bonus tracks, while 4AD commemorated the band’s defining era with Gift: The 4AD Years—an Abbey Road–remastered collection spanning Fetisch, Tocsin, and related EP material. With a limited vinyl reissue of Devils now back in the conversation and more still on the horizon, Anja Huwe and Xmal Deutschland’s story continues with a new generation of fans.

Codes, Huwe’s first solo album released via Sacred Bones, arrived as the other half of that restoration: a modern work shaped by her long friendship with Mona Mur and sharpened by the return of Manuela Rickers’ guitar presence on the album. Built over months of meticulous collaboration, the record carries the same steely emotional directness that defined Xmal Deutschland—now refracted through a deliberate architecture of poetry, pressure, and survival.

At the center stands Huwe—an artist of distinction whose voice remains as direct and commanding as it was in the early days, whether cutting through the razor angles of the Xmal catalogue or moving through the more deliberate modern framework of her solo LP. The 2026 dates offer a rare chance to experience that continuum live, on this side of the Atlantic, with decades of context finally in place.

North American Tour Dates (2026)

March 18, 2026 — New York, NY — Le Poisson Rouge — Tickets
March 19, 2026 — Montréal, QC — Théâtre Fairmount — Tickets
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