Hoffner Lodge, a 141-year-old building on Hamilton Avenue in Cincinnati’s Northside neighborhood, will host Italian composer Fabio Frizzi this week for a live tribute to some of cult director Lucio Fulci’s most notorious horror films. Frizzi, 75, lives in Italy and rarely tours the United States. The Cincinnati date is part of his 2026 North American run, booked locally by promoter Chris Alsip, a longtime Fulci fan.
A Decade-Old Tribute Finally Lands in Cincinnati
Frizzi 2 Fulci pairs Frizzi and a live band performing his film scores with clips from the corresponding movies, according to Cincinnati CityBeat. The project began with a sold-out Halloween-night premiere at London’s Union Chapel in 2013, reworking Frizzi’s scores as standalone progressive rock arrangements, according to Hoodline’s earlier reporting on the tour’s St. Louis stop. Alsip booked the Cincinnati show in 2025; Frizzi later postponed his American tour for a year, CityBeat reported.
Alsip also organizes the annual HorrorHound convention celebrating Cincinnati’s horror scene. He told CityBeat that he has watched Fulci’s movies since high school and credits Frizzi’s music with making them more iconic. Posts in the Fans of Horrorhound Weekend group on Facebook indicate that HorrorHound Weekend is co-sponsoring the Cincinnati performance.
The 15-Year Partnership Behind the Music
Frizzi and Fulci worked together for 15 years between 1975 and 1990, composing soundtracks for horror classics including Zombi 2, City of the Living Dead, and The Beyond, according to Hoodline's prior coverage of the tour. Alsip singled out the Zombi 2 score as one he is especially excited to hear performed live, per CityBeat. The composer's reach extends beyond cult horror circles, too: director Quentin Tarantino featured 7 Note, the main theme from Frizzi's score for Fulci's 1977 thriller Sette Note in Nero, in the soundtrack of Kill Bill: Vol. 1 in 2003, Hoodline previously reported.
The Cincinnati stop is one leg of a sprawling run. Frizzi's Fall 2026 North American tour spans more than 30 cities across the United States and Canada, beginning September 23 in Brooklyn and wrapping November 1 in Atlanta, according to The Concert Chronicles. On select dates, multidisciplinary artist Ethan Lee McCarthy — known for his work in the metal band Primitive Man and his ambient soundscapes — is serving as the supporting act, the outlet reports. Tour merchandise includes an exclusive live album, The Boat Can Leave Now: 13 Years Of Frizzi 2 Fulci, pressed to just 400 vinyl copies for purchase during the run, according to a post from the official Fabio Frizzi tour page on Facebook.
Another Live Route for Italian Horror Scores
The tours share a North American footprint but differ in timing and format. Frizzi 2 Fulci pairs scores with clips from the corresponding films; the itinerary described above runs September 23 to November 1, from Brooklyn to Atlanta, across more than 30 U.S. and Canadian cities. Separately, Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin lists a U.S. and Canada tour from October 21 to November 23, performing the Tenebre score alongside a screening of the film, according to the band’s official website.
Finding a Venue With the Right Atmosphere
The venue choice grew out of a search for a space suited to the performance. Alsip contacted Julia Green, owner of the temporarily closed DSGN CLLCTV, for help finding a location. Green told CityBeat that Hoffner Lodge’s older atmosphere made it a good fit.
That atmosphere comes with genuine history. Hoffner Lodge at 4120 Hamilton Avenue was built in 1885 on land donated by landowner Jacob Hoffner and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 3, 1978, according to information cited from Wikipedia and the venue's own website. The building was designed by 19th-century Cincinnati architect Albert C. Nash — whose work is often misattributed to Samuel Hannaford — and originally combined ground-floor commercial storefronts with upper-floor lodge halls, per a Northside history post on Facebook.
The building's third floor has its own underground music pedigree. From 2007 to 2010, that space operated as Art Damage Lodge, a volunteer-run DIY venue that hosted underground noise and avant-garde acts, according to Cincinnati CityBeat's historical coverage. That legacy of hosting non-traditional performances makes Hoffner Lodge a fitting stage for a concert built around 1970s and 1980s Italian horror scores.
Cincinnati's horror community has long supported events like this, and Alsip told CityBeat he plans to book more shows connecting the city's local music, film, and horror scenes. Ticket information for the Frizzi 2 Fulci performance is available through Cincy Ticket, per CityBeat's reporting. For Alsip, the show is a once-in-a-lifetime concert bringing a composer he has admired since his teenage years to a stage in his own city.
