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the shaking ray levi society and flying fingers productions present:
THE PLASTIC PEOPLE OF THE UNIVERSE
at BARKING LEGS THEATER (1307 Dodds Ave.)
THURSDAY, SEPT. 20, 8:00 PM - $10

Simply put, THE PLASTIC PEOPLE OF THE UNIVERSE are living legends, a rare music group with an indelible spot in the turbulent history of Czechoslovakia. The band emerged almost four decades ago with bold, uncompromising music, and their incarceration by the oppressive Communist regime served as
direct inspiration for future president Václav Havel and others to write the Charter 77, a demand for human rights.

In August of 1968, five Warsaw Pact nation armies totaling several hundred thousand troops invaded Czechoslovakia, putting an abrupt end to the promise of the Prague Spring political liberalization which began earlier that year. One month after the invasion, the Plastic People of the Universe was
formed. Akin to other ‘60s underground and counterculture visionaries, the group was influenced by the Velvet Underground, Captain Beefheart, the Fugs, and Frank Zappa, whose track “Plastic People” gave the band its name.

Their music is compelling, strange, and sometimes primitive, with a violin providing an Eastern European flavor and wild, vibrant sax solos, and poet and philosopher Egon Bondy, whose writings were banned by the government, supplied the group with lyrics. Today, with a seven-member lineup, they carry their nonconformist spirit with vigor and intensity—no limp rock dinosaurs
here—and sound just as vital and stirring as ever.

This show at Chattanooga’s Barking Legs Theater is one of just a handful of shows that the band will perform in the States this year.

The Village Voice:
“…beyond their cultural impact, the Plastics were a very great
band.”

Critic Richie Unterberger:
“…the Plastic People did more than almost any other rock band to change the course of world history.”