robertsl@stolaf.UUCP (Laurence C. Roberts) (06/20/85)
On Monday the 17th of June, I attended a concert by the _Violent_Femmes_ at
First Avenue, the nightclub made famous by *gasp* Prince. I'd never before
caught the Femmes live, so I wanted to see them before they got even more
famous. I think I was too late, though. The crowd was composed mainly of
trendy kids from Edina who don't know how to slam correctly.
I thought the Femmes were rather bored with the whole thing. In _Gimme_the_Car,
Gordon Gano added the verse
"What's right/ What's wrong
Who cares/ When I hate this song".
I thought they did much too little new material. They claim thet they will be
recording a third album soon. I thought the best thing I hadn't heard before
was an anti-Reagan song. They occasionally added a three-person horn line,
including (I think) Jay McHale from local "jazz-punk-funkateers" _2i_ [That
descriptive phrase is lifted from a review of their new record _House_of_Nerves_
in a local music paper]
In general, the show reinforced my conviction that becoming nationally famous is
a pointless goal. Shows get caked with curiousity-seekers, and are no longer
fun. There are several local bands which I would much rather see. I had loads
more fun the previous night seeing _Boiled_in_Lead_, even though (or maybe
because) they played accoustically and I was sitting down the whole time.
If the Violent Femmes come to your town, and they don't have much of a local
following, or there aren't too many nearby suburbs, I would reccomend seeing
them. Otherwise, it's your risk.
p.s. If anyone out in netland beyond Minnesota reads this, could you mail me a
note, please. Our connections have been tenuous recently due to massive recent
downtime. Thanks in reverse,
--
Laurence Roberts
...!ihnp4!stolaf!robertsl
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| U.S. out of Edina |
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