Reviewed on Monday December 29
Violent Femmes opened their debut performance inside the iconic Opera House Concert Hall with ‘Blister In The Sun’. Let that marinate for just a minute. Given, this was logical – we were indeed promised a run-through of the band’s 1983 debut LP, which opens with the double-handclapped hit. From a bigger-picture perspective, however, it was easy to look at it as a huge ‘fuck you’ to every single person that considered the band to live and die by that song and that song alone.
Violent Femmes, now celebrating its 32nd year, still has the pizzazz, stomp and frequent detours into intensity that made it an exceptional record to begin with. Highlights ranged from the head-to-wall frustration of ‘Add It Up’ to the slithering ‘Gone Daddy Gone’, in which bassist Brian Ritchie switched over to play what was referred to as a “xylarimba”. There were moments when main Femme Gordon Gano struggled to be heard over the roars of singing along that came right back. Many in the audience had clearly loved and supported the band since the record itself was released – hell, even if the band had just left the stage after ‘Good Feeling’ and never returned, the crowd would have been satisfied.
In the Femmes’ current context, it’s the Brians who run the show. The first: Ritchie, one of the best bass players one could ever wish to see live. He was often found parading around the stage, offering up various licks while seamlessly slipping in backing vocals and switching out to a foreign instrument seemingly just for the hell of it. The second: Viglione, who took over as full-time drummer around 18 months ago. A truly phenomenal percussionist, Viglione matched his dramatic flair with bombastic, splashing fills. When it broke down into a drum solo toward the end of the set, it was extremely clear that both he and a good portion of punters had been waiting all night for it.
Across roughly two hours, fans new and old got to hear more or less every song they could have wanted to hear from the band, from deeper cuts like ‘Jesus Walking On The Water’ and ‘Life Is An Adventure’ to big sing-alongs ‘I Held Her in My Arms’ and closing number ‘American Music’. Indeed, we like all kinds of music – but if we use the Femmes as indicative of their home nation’s overall sound, we like American music best, baby.
