eli@uw-june (Eli Messinger) (11/02/83)
As per a previous request... some traffic on the channel. I recently had the opportunity to see the Violent Femmes, a "electro- acoustic-folk-punk" trio from Milwaulkee. This is the second time they've played here in six months. For those of you who are unfamiliar... the story has it that they were playing on the sidewalk in front of a line of people waiting to see the Pretenders when Pretenders' guitarist James Honeyman-Scott "discovered" them and asked them to open the show. They skirt around verifying that story when asked. Anyway, they have one self-titled album release on Slash records. Their show this time was somewhat different than the last -- although the performance itself was very similar. The difference being the audience. The Violent Femmes have become a "happening" band as far as the Seattle newwave audience is concerned. Plenty of energetic dancing and bodies flying from the stage, which is something of a shame since the lyrical message this band packs was probably lost on a lot of the crowd. Still, people enjoy themselves on their own terms. The high point of the show for me came during one of their "religious" songs. The lead singer, Gordon Gano, is the son of a minister, and ap- parently has incorporated a traditional church hymn into their set -- albeit spiced up a bit with a rockin' beat. The audience seemed content to stop their dancing temporarily and listen... the Femmes then sequed into one of their own compositions, which the crowd sang along with much as they would in church. The Gospel according to Gano. All in all a terrific, energetic performance filled with odd instument- ation -- from the bassists acoustic mariachi bass to the drummers wash- tub over a tom-tom, and innovative folk-punk sounds. Oh, they've also added their road manager on sax! ... uw-june!eli