This just in:

New York Dolls Announce May US Tour Dates!

Play the State Theatre on Tues., June 9

Legendary NYC proto-punk glam rockers the NEW YORK DOLLS announce the first dates of the US tour starting in May. The band that kick-started the NYC rock scene with their self-titled debut back in 1973 reunited with producer Todd Rundgren for their May 5 release, Cause I Sez So, on the newly revived Atco imprint.

The album comes roaring out of the gate with a classic Dolls riff on the title track and ends 12 tracks later with “Exorcism of Despair,” an anarchic rocker that’s vintage Dolls. The quintessential NYC band performs a private show on Tuesday, May 5 at the John Varvatos store on Bowery, the site of landmark punk club CBGBs.

While the Dolls have nothing left to prove, their live shows are a testament to why they remain one of the most influential, beloved rock bands of all time. Founders David Johansen (vocals) and Sylvain Sylvain (guitar), the only surviving members of the original group, are joined by Steve Conte (guitar); Brian Delaney (drums); and Sami Yaffa (bass). With rave reviews for their 2009 performances at the SxSW festival and South America, the Dolls continue to prove that lipsticked or otherwise, they can still kick your ass.

Dates and Cities for the New York Dolls are as follows:

This article appears in Apr 22-28, 2009.

Eric Snider is the dean of Bay area music critics. He started in the early 1980s as one of the founding members of Music magazine, a free bi-monthly. He was the pop music critic for the then-St. Petersburg...