violent femmes tour 1990

• Skip to Main Menu
• Skip to Main Content
• Notable Equipment
• Record Labels
• Additional Artists
• Things I Like

Violent Femmes

Discography

Upcoming Shows

• Site Search
• Privacy Policy

Tour Date Search

www.TourDateSearch.com

Wed, Jun 19, 2024

Shows: 1225 Earliest: Jul 25, 1981 Latest: May 18, 2024 Next Show: Thu Jun 20,2024 at Kresge Auditorium at Interlochen Center for the Arts in Interlochen, MI view all upcoming shows >

On this day in tour history

-- Back to Top of Page --

Follow Tour Date Search : Facebook | Twitter

Search | Artists | Upcoming Shows | Contact | Donate | Links |--> Site Search | Privacy Policy

The Untold Truth Of The Violent Femmes

Alternative rock started to take hold in the early 1980s, with many of those bands taking cues from punk , hooky New Wave, and folk. The Violent Femmes combined all three into one raw, gritty, humorous package. The stripped-down Milwaukee trio is a punk band, all snotty vocals about youthful frustrations and played both aggressively and melodically. But it's also a folk band, because its instruments are acoustic and minimal. The Violent Femmes rode its unique sound into status as one of alternative rock's pioneers and cult favorites. They're best known for catchy, enduring singles like "Gone Daddy Gone," "Kiss Off," and "Blister in the Sun," showcasing the wry and dryly funny lyrics of frontman Gordon Gano with the freewheeling bass work of Brian Ritchie. 

For more than 40 years, the Violent Femmes have been strutting their stuff to bring their American music to the masses. We decided to add it up and found that it doesn't have something to do with luck, and put it all down on their permanent record. Here's everything, everything, everything, everything there is to know about the Violent Femmes.

The very real Violent Femmes was named after a fake band

Before the Violent Femmes, as fronted by Gordon Gano, existed, founding bassist Brian Ritchie was part of a bare-bones duo called Ruthless Acoustics. Violent Femmes drummer Victor DeLorenzo had previously been in the group, and then replaced by Jerry Fortier. Wanting to sound cool to Fortier, Ritchie made up stories about his brother, so as to seem hip by association. Fortier wanted details. "At the time my brother was working for an insurance company, totally straight," Ritchie recalled to Rockzone . "So of course I lied and said, 'He's exactly like me, he's a punk and has his own band!'" When Fortier asked Ritchie to identify his brother's band, the bassist froze. "I had to come up with something, so I blurted out, 'Uh ... Violent Femmes.'"

That same day, Fortier went over to the home of DeLorenzo, with whom he was in the early stages of forming another band. DeLorenzo thought the story and the name were funny, so they adopted "Violent Femmes" for use in their new project.

An early gig ended in chaos

One of the first times that eventual Violent Femmes Gordon Gano and Brian Ritchie would play together was at the former's high school in Milwaukee. Gano was set to be awarded by his school's chapter of the National Honor Society, and the ceremony included a talent show. He decided to sing and play guitar on an original song, "Gimme the Car." 

The song would eventually appear on the Violent Femmes' first album in 1983, and it's told from the point of view of a sexually frustrated teenage boy detailing how he planned to take a girl out on a date, get her drunk, and take advantage of her when her inhibitions are lowered. Gano saw Ritchie at a punk show the night before the ceremony and enlisted him to be his accompanist. The song did not please the crowd of faculty members. 

"The place just erupted into mayhem, the principal and some of the teachers are standing on the side of the stage waving their arms yelling stop, but they couldn't stop us because the amps miraculously were plugged into the front of the stage, so if they wanted to unplug us, they'd have to actually walk in front of us and unplug the amps, which none of them had the guts to do," Ritchie told  The Philadelphia Inquirer . Gano was punished — he received a suspension, and his National Honor Society prize was revoked.

The Pretenders discovered the Violent Femmes

One of the biggest breakout successes of the New Wave era was the Pretenders. Fronted by Chrissie Hynde , the band scored numerous hits in the late 1970s and early 1980s, including "Brass in Pocket" and "Back on the Chain Gang." In August 1981, the Pretenders' tour took them to Milwaukee for a concert in that city's Oriental Theatre. That same day, the Violent Femmes had attempted to audition for a gig at Milwaukee's Century Hall, but management refused to listen to the band. 

Upset over the slight, the group decided to busk by the Oriental Theatre. "We just set up in front there and started playing, as we usually would do," bassist Brian Ritchie told Salon . Fans filing in for the Pretenders show liked what they heard, and so did Pretenders guitarist James Honeyman-Scott. He and Hynde invited the Violent Femmes into the Oriental Theatre for a short, impromptu opening act set.

That appearance didn't immediately lead to a record deal, but it got the band more attention and more prominent gigs. Shortly after the Pretenders pulled the Violent Femmes on stage, the group was asked to open for punk icon Richard Hell at CBGB's in New York City. "Robert Palmer from the New York Times wrote a review and only mentioned a paragraph about Richard and the rest was about us," Ritchie told Spin . "We didn't even have a record out yet."

The first two Violent Femmes albums are intertwined

Some of the Violent Femmes' 1983 self-titled debut was written by frontman Gordon Gano when he was 15, each song a weekend project. "I thought, 'If I write a song that I think is really great, then I've really done something,'" he told Life of the Record . By the time the Violent Femmes had signed with Slash Records and had a full-length album in the works, 18-year-old Gano had two albums' worth of material banked, and the band separated Gano's tunes into two groups. "We decided to put the poppy songs on the first album. We didn't know that we'd be making more than one album so we thought it was a good statement," bassist Brian Ritchie said. The fresh leftovers become the second Violent Femmes album, released in 1984. "We could have released 'Hallowed Ground' first," Ritchie explained.

But the band and its label unleashed "Violent Femmes" first, and its creation wasn't overthought. "There was zero rehearsal," Ritchie told  The Philadelphia Inquirer . "There are a few different good ways to make a record, and one of them is to not rehearse and just get the most honest and spontaneous reaction to the material, and put it down as fast as possible."

The Violent Femmes dabbled in Christian music

While the majority of the Violent Femmes' self-titled 1983 debut and the 1984 follow-up "Hallowed Ground" were written by Gordon Gano around the same time, the LPs are very different. The first consists primarily of agitated pop-rockers like "Kiss Off" and "Blister in the Sun," while the second bears traces of classic religious music and gospel elements, particularly in "Jesus Walking on the Water" and "Country Death Song." That wasn't done out of humor or irony: Gano was raised in the Baptist church by a minister father, and remained a Christian well into adulthood and throughout his time with the Violent Femmes. 

Part of the reason why the more outwardly religious songs were saved for "Hallowed Ground" was because Violent Femmes bassist Brian Ritchie didn't want to make Christian music. "At the time, Brian was very aggressively anti-anything Christian," Gano told the Phoenix New TImes . "He said he didn't want to be playing in a band that was expressing something that he felt so vehemently against." Ritchie eventually relented in time for "Hallowed Ground," just because he liked Gano's songs so much.

Gano would lace spiritual themes throughout later Violent Femmes releases, to mixed results from fans. "Some people say, 'I can't listen to Christian music, but I can listen to your songs.' But other people don't like it," he told CNN .

A 1980s breakup didn't stick

By the mid-1980s, the Violent Femmes had found such success that it unnerved the band. Touring behind its third album, 1986's "The Blind Leading the Naked," the trio played the historic Carnegie Hall and worked the audience into such a frenzy that some fans stormed the stage and attempted to take the musicians' instruments. That prompted venue management to abruptly end the show, and the Violent Femmes, who'd experienced similar unsettling incidents on the tour, to call for a hiatus.

With the band essentially broken up for an indeterminate period of time, the musicians released solo projects much different than their work in the Violent Femmes. Bassist Brian Richie recorded the experimental rock record "The Blend" for punk label SST, where he got to show off his lead guitar skills. Lead singer Gordon Gano and his partner, vocalist Zena Von Heppinstall, formed a gospel-punk hybrid band called Mercy Seat.

The creation and dissolution of Mercy Seat was what ultimately led to the split — and subsequent reformation — of the Violent Femmes. "Gordon's girlfriend wanted him to quit the Femmes and form a band with her," Ritchie told Three Monkeys Online . "When that failed Gordon opted to come back to the Femmes." In 1989, the second iteration of the Violent Femmes released its fourth album, "3."

The Violent Femmes was unplugged before Unplugged

In its early years, the Violent Femmes rarely used electric instruments; Gordon Gano preferred an acoustic guitar, and Brian Ritchie often played a stand-up bass. Performing punk music on folky instruments made the Violent Femmes a popular outlier in the electric guitar-driven world of alternative rock in the 1980s, and also something of a precursor to "MTV Unplugged." The live concert series, a staple of the cable music channel's programming throughout the 1990s, presented well-known icons of rock playing their loud and electrified tunes on acoustic instruments in an intimate setting, allowing their songs to breathe without the masking of feedback or production tricks.

According to a music world rumor in the 1990s, the Violent Femmes created the concept of "MTV Unplugged," with luminaries like Eric Clapton, Pearl Jam, and Nirvana following its lead in putting away the electric guitars. It's only sort of true. "We didn't have the idea. Somebody from MTV told us that they were inspired by us to ask other bands to play acoustically like we do," Ritchie told Spin . "Then suddenly you saw a lot of that happening, but it had nothing to do with us. It was just a matter of them wanting to be like us." In spite of laying the groundwork and providing the nugget of the idea, the Violent Femmes was never asked to perform on "MTV Unplugged."

They like 'American Music'

In 1991, "American Music" reached NJo. 2 on Billboard's alternative rock chart, making it the most commercially successful single ever for the Violent Femmes. Gordon Gano populated the song with dozens of lyrical couplets that sound familiar, but are largely nonsensical when strung together — sections about being born too late, lamenting the lack of a prom date, and having done too many drugs, for example. Taken altogether, "American Music" is an elaborate pastiche of subtle homages to American music — it's a '60s-style pop song about pop music written and produced to sound like a slick, '60s-style pop song.

In its first form, "American Music" was a typical Violent Femmes loud-acoustic number inspired by the Ramones , a punk band with a sound alluding to that of '60s girl groups. "But [drummer] Victor [DeLorenzo] thought that Ramones approach wasn't right for the song and said, 'Why don't we do it as a shuffle?'" bassist Brian Ritchie told Radio Milwaukee . Then the band got to work. "There is a lot of arranging on that song. We put many, many pop music and rock references into the melody of that song," Ritchie said. There are some Beach Boys motifs, and the use of sleigh bells was taken from the production work of Phil Spector. The rapid tempo escalation at the song's end is a nod to "Heroin" by the Velvet Underground.

How 'Blister in the Sun' was lost and twice remade

Leading off its first album, "Blister in the Sun" is the Violent Femmes' best-known song, a tune that entered the public consciousness slowly but surely as much as the LP that spawned it — it took eight years for that record to sell a million copies. Firmly entrenched and accepted as a definitive 1980s song, makers of the 1997 film "Grosse Pointe Blank" — about a hired killer reflecting on the '80s at his high school reunion with his ex-girlfriend, a classic alternative rock DJ — wanted "Blister in the Sun" for the soundtrack. Two versions of the song bookend the accompanying album.

"Grosse Pointe Blank" star and co-writer John Cusack helped choose the film's music, and he asked the Violent Femmes to record a new version of "Blister in the Sun." So, the band created the deconstructed, slowed-down "Blister 2000." "And then they decided they liked the original one just as much, so in the end they decided to include both," Violent Femmes bassist Brian Ritchie told Billboard . However, the Violent Femmes would also have to re-record, to the best of its abilities, the 1983 version of "Blister in the Sun." The master had been left behind in the studio where the band recorded the song, and when the facility shut down, the tape was thrown away.

The Violent Femmes released one of the first-ever digital albums

The Violent Femmes released "Something's Wrong" in 2001. An obscurities compilation, it consisted entirely of rarities from the band's 20-year history, including demos, live recordings, alternate takes of album cuts, and covers of songs by Bob Dylan, Paul Anka, and the Police. This collection of musical historical artifacts was itself a historical object: At a time when digital music was still new-fangled, "Something's Wrong" was made available to the public in a purely digital format. Originally released as an MP3 collection on the subscription-based download site EMusic.com, "Something's Wrong" was never re-released on CD or vinyl, and has never been made available on digital music platforms like Apple Music or Spotify. 

A major act putting out a digital-only LP in 2001 was exceedingly rare. David Bowie sold a download-only album in 1999, and after the Violent Femmes' "Something's Wrong" took a future-looking step, Apple's iTunes Music Store wouldn't open for another two years.

Wendy's chili helped break up the Violent Femmes

Fast food chain Wendy's launched an advertising campaign in 2007 touting its chili and baked potatoes. Soundtracking the commercial: the Violent Femmes' "Blister in the Sun." Fans discussed the commercial online, finding the use of the Milwaukee band's best-known song in such a way to be distasteful. Violent Femmes bassist Brian Ritchie explained how it all happened at  OnMilwaukee. "Gordon Gano is the publisher of the song and Warners is the record company. When they agree to use it there's nothing the rest of the band can do about it, because we don't own the song or the recording," he wrote. "Therefore when you see dubious, or in this case disgusting, uses of our music, you can thank the greed, insensitivity, and poor taste of Gordon Gano."

While Ritchie couldn't prevent his bandmate from using Violent Femmes in ads, he tried to financially benefit from it. In August 2007, Ritchie sued Gano, alleging that he'd been cheated out of royalties and authority over some Violent Femmes songs, because he'd never been properly credited as a songwriter. The suit also suggested that the Wendy's commercial damaged the band's credibility.

Ritchie and Gano reached an out-of-court settlement in 2012 and reformed the Violent Femmes, which hadn't played live since just before the lawsuit. However, original drummer Victor DeLorenzo declined to rejoin his bandmates, over what he considered disagreeable terms of a new Violent Femmes business arrangement.

The Violent Femmes traded covers

Pop-R&B supergroup Gnarls Barkley, consisting of DJ Danger Mouse and rapper-singer CeeLo Green, followed up its 2006 smash hit "Crazy" with another track from its album "St. Elsewhere" — "Gone Daddy Gone." A No. 26 hit on Billboard's alternative rock chart, it proved more commercially successful as a cover than in its original version; an album track on the Violent Femmes' independently released 1983 self-titled debut album. "I heard it on the way to the studio one day, and I thought it could be transformed into something else," Danger Mouse told New York Magazine of his reasons for covering the tune. "I always liked the way rock bands in the '60s, especially on their first few records, would shamelessly cover the stuff they were listening to at the time."

As if to say thanks to Gnarls Barkley for amplifying its 23-year-old song and generating songwriting royalties for Gordon Gano, the Violent Femmes repaid the favor, in the spirit of Danger Mouse's motivations. In 2008, the band recorded its own take on "Crazy," releasing it as a standalone single on iTunes and vinyl.

Violent Femmes Tour History

Top Tours · Just Announced · USA · Europe · 2025 Tours

Terms of Service · Privacy and Cookie Policy · Contact © Concertful

Everything you need to know about the Violent Femmes

What are they famous for.

The Violent Femmes are famous for being an American folk punk band which first formed in Mikwaukee, Wisconsin. The band’s line-up consisted of singer, guitarist and songwriter Gordon Gano, bassist Brian Ritchie, Blaise Garza on saxophone and keyboard and drummer John Sparrow.

The band has released ten studio albums over the course of their career, after they found early success with their debut album in 1983. The self-titled album contained a number of well-known songs which have now become classics, including ‘Blister in the sun’, ‘Kiss Off’, ‘Add it up’ and ‘Gone Daddy Gone’. The band’s first self-titled album has been their most successful, earning them platinum certification and making them one of the most successful alternative rock bands of the 1980s. As of 2005 the band had sold around 9 million albums.

For a period of time after the release of their third album the bands future was in limbo and they split up for a year between 1987 and 1988 whilst members Gano and Ritchie went solo before regrouping to release a new album. Since getting back together the band has remained popular, especially in their home country the United States where their more recent songs ‘Nightmares’ and ‘American Music’ reached the top five in the Modern Rock Charts in the country.

Early Career

The Violent Femmes were initially founded by bass guitar played Brian Ritchie and his friend, percussionist Victor DeLorenzo after the initial wave of American punk rock had begun to lose steam and was no longer popular. The duo became a real band when lead vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Gordon Gano joined them. Ritchie is credited with coming up with the name of the band after he was challenged by one of his bandmates about whether or not his brother was also in a band – he and DeLorenzo decided that they like the name and so they adopted it as their name prior to Gano joining the band. In the beginning the Violent Femmes played at local coffee houses and on street corners until they were discovered by James Honeyman-Scott from the Pretenders in 1981 whilst they were busking on a street corner close to the Oriental Theatre, which was the Milwaukee venue that the Pretenders were playing that night. Chrissie Hynde invited the band to play a short acoustic set after the opening act of the show.

Career Breakthrough

The band released their debut album Violent Femmes in 1983, the album performed well and earned them a number of fans. The bands second album ‘Hallowed Ground’ moved away from the folk-alternative rock sound that the band was known for and into a country music sound, the lyrics of their songs introduced Christian themes and ideas. The bands third album ‘The Blind Leading the Naked’ saw the band change studio and producers, Mark Van Hecke had produced their previous two efforts but Jerry Harrison from Talking Heads (a famous 1980’s band like Aerosmith ), who also hailed from Milwaukee was responsible for producing the bands third album. The third album once again saw the band shift their sound away from their alternative-rock roots and Christian country music sound towards a more mainstream pop-oriented sound. The album had one minor hit, ‘Children of the Revolution’ which was originally created by T.Rex. In 1985 the bands previous producer Van Hecke officially ended his partnership with the band and began composing and producing for the fast growing video game industry – although he did later return to help the band produce two more albums.

After the release of their third album the Violent Femmes briefly went on hiatus, disbanding so that Gano could release an album in 1987 in connection with his side project, a gospel band called Mercy Seat and so that Richie could release a number of solo LPs. In late 1988 the group got back together to start work on their next album, ‘3’ which was released in 1989 and returned to the bands original, stripped-back sound. In 1990 the band was signed to Reprise and the following year they released ‘Why Do Birds Sing?’ which included the minor hit ‘American Music’ which became a signature song for the band and a regular play at concerts.

Continuing Career

In 1993 DeLorenzo chose to leave the band so that he could pursue his solo career. Guy Hoffman, who was formerly a member of both the Oil Tasters and the BoDeans joined the band as a tour member to promote a records that would later become one of the bands biggest-sellers, their ‘Add It Up (1981-1993) collection. Over the course of nine years the band, alongside Hoffman was able to record five full-length CDs and a number of film soundtrack like the song ‘I Swear It (I Can Change)’ from the South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut soundtrack and the sonf ‘Colour Me Once’ from ‘The Crow’. The band’s first studio album with Hoffman as band member was ‘New Times’ which was released in 1994 and included a minor hit ‘Breakin’ Up’. Their album ‘Rock!!!!’ was released in 1995 in Australia.

The band released a live album called ‘Viva Wisconsin’ in the United States in 1999 with the help of an independent label called Beyond. The album was followed up by ‘Freak Magnet’ which was released in 2000. The following year they released ‘Something’s Wrong’ which included a number of previously unreleased studio tracks, covers, demos and live performances, the album was released on eMusic and MP3 only platform. In 2002 the band’s debut 1983 self-titled album was repackaged by Rhino Records to include additional demos and tracks – this was planned to coincide with the bands 20 th anniversary. To celebrate the milestone DeLorenzo requested to be included in the farewell tour and the bands original line-up was restored. In the same year the band recorded a cover of the SpongeBob theme song and a recorded a short advert for Nickelodeon.

In 2005 the band released two collections of their past work, the first was a CD titled ‘Permanent Record: The Very Best of the Violent Femmes and a DVD titled ‘Permanent Record: Live & Otherwise’ which was distributed by Rhino, the DVD showcased a number of the bands performances from 1991 and a number of their music videos.

After completing the touring and promotion of their album ‘Freak Magnet’ the bands main songwriter, Gano, decided that the band would cease producing new music and instead they would continue to give live performances. In 2005 and for a single show in 2006, all of the members of the band played together.

In 2007 there was an inter-band dispute after Gano sold the advertising rights for the bands classic song ‘Blister in the Sun’ to the fast-food retailer Wendy’s. Gano was the sole songwriter of the song although he was not credited for it and had the right to sell it, but Ritchie was not happy with its use.

Ritchie made a public statement that it was out of the band’s hands and that fans complaining about the poor taste of using the song were right to complain. He went on to state that unfortunately ‘that’s showbiz’ and that the dubious use of the song could be blamed on the insensitivity and poor taste of Gano. He went on to say that it was ‘karma’ that the songwriter had lost his songwriting abilities years ago, reportedly due to his own lack of self-respect, he also stated that it was due to his ‘willingness to prostitute our songs’ for profit. He went on to say that Gordon was vegetarian and that Ritchie himself like gourmet food and that neither of them would eat the brand’s burger, he also states that he himself did not endorse the brand on culinary, political, health, economic and environmental grounds. He also raised grievances at having his life’s work repeatedly trivialised without his consent. As a result Richie filed a lawsuit in 2007 against Gano to seek ownership over the band’s music and despite speculation that the band would break up they released a cover of ‘Crazy’ by Gnarls Barkley. The band did eventually break up in 2009 because of the lawsuit.

In 2013 the band reunited to perform at the Coachella festival in 2013. The also played a number of shows in Australia, including the Falls Festival and Woodford Folk Festival. They toured with the Barenaked Ladies for two months in Australia and in 2016 announced their first album in 16 years, ‘We Can Do Anything’.

• Violent Femmes
• Violent Femmes (Slash) 1983  (Slash/Rhino) 2002 
• Hallowed Ground (Slash) 1984 
• The Blind Leading the Naked (Slash/Warner Bros.) 1986 
• 3 (Slash/Warner Bros.) 1989 
• Debacle: The First Decade (Aus. Liberation) 1990 
• Why Do Birds Sing? (Slash/Reprise) 1991 + 1992 
• Add It Up (1981-1993) (Slash/Reprise) 1993 
• Machine EP (Elektra) 1994 
• New Times (Elektra) 1994 
• Rock!!!!! (Aus. Mushroom) 1995  (Coldfront) 2000 
• Viva Wisconsin (Cooking Vinyl/Beyond) 1999 
• Freak Magnet (Cooking Vinyl/Beyond) 2000 
• Something's Wrong (eMusic) 2001 
• The Mercy Seat (Slash) 1987 
• Brian Ritchie
• The Blend (SST) 1987 
• Sonic Temple & Court of Babylon (SST) 1989 
• I See a Noise (Dali/Chameleon) 1990 
• Shakuhachi Club NYC (Weed) 2004 
• Ryoanji (Thylacine) 2006 
• Taimu (Thylacine) 2007 
• Victor De Lorenzo
• Peter Corey Sent Me (Dali/Chameleon) 1991 
• Pancake Day (Almo Sounds) 1995 
• Blessed Faustina (bFrecordings) 1999 
• Sigmund Snopek III
• Wisconsinsane (Dali/Chameleon) 1987 

The Violent Femmes burst out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the early ’80s, a remarkably original trio playing acoustic instruments and singing intense, personal songs with remarkable candor and love. Initially resembling a punk version of the Modern Lovers, the Femmes — Gordon Gano (vocals, guitar, songs), Brian Ritchie (bass) and Victor De Lorenzo (drums) — have grown more uncommon over the years, fixing a flexible style that resembles no other band.

On the skeletal first album, Violent Femmes , Gano’s articulate passion and lyrical maladjustment combine with the charged (but not very loud) playing to convey an incredible sense of desperation and rage. “Blister in the Sun” and “Kiss Off” are typical of the anger seething in the grooves, while “Gone Daddy Gone” and “Please Do Not Go” show a more upbeat side still rooted in extreme individuality and super-ego. The disc’s best couplet: “Why can’t I get just one fuck?/Guess it’s got something to do with luck.” (The deluxe reissue includes an album’s worth of demos and rarities and an entire second disc of contemporaneous concert performances.)

Hallowed Ground takes a much different approach, displaying Gano’s religious fervor and connecting with traditional American folk music. The cast includes a banjo picker and autoharp strummer, as well as a horn’n’clarinet section; the material encompasses tragic balladry (“Country Death Song”), old-timey spirituals (“Jesus Walking on the Water,” “It’s Gonna Rain”), mild be-bop (“Sweet Misery Blues”) and demented jazz-funk (“Black Girls”). Not as pointed as the first album, it nonetheless showcases an inquisitive band deeply committed to self-expression, regardless of the consequences.

The Blind Leading the Naked was produced by Talking Head Jerry Harrison with conscious mainstreaming intent. Of course, the Femmes at their most commercial are still pretty radical, although “I Held Her in My Arms” does sound unnervingly like Bruce Springsteen. As if to prove their orneriness, a vituperative attack on “Old Mother Reagan” and the similarly anti-authoritarian “No Killing” demonstrate an undying rebellious spirit. But it’s another type of spirit that invests the bluesy “Faith” and the Stonesy “Love & Me Make Three,” keeping god in the grooves alongside Marc Bolan, who gets worked over with a misbegotten Headsish version of “Children of the Revolution.” The Velvet Underground fares better on “Good Friend,” a Femmes original that uncannily echoes Lou Reed.

The Mercy Seat is an energetically electric album by Gano’s all-gospel side group. Backing big-voiced (but mini-skirted) singer Zena Von Heppinstall in a lineup with a bassist and drummer, he plays guitar and joins the choruses of such numbers as “I Am a Pilgrim” and “I Don’t Need Nobody Else (but Jesus).”

De Lorenzo co-produced and, with Ritchie, provided most of the instrumental backing on WisconsInsane , a loopy extravaganza from singing dairy state keyboardist/flautist Sigmund Snopek III. (Snopek’s previous albums — solo and with his eponymous group, going back to the late ’70s — were subsequently reissued by his new label.) While their contributions to such serio-comical Midwest maunderings as “The Rose of Wisconsin,” “Thank God This Isn’t Cleveland” and “I’m So Tired of Singing About the Sky” tend to be lost in the slick production, the LP is a cute theatrical diversion.

Snopek returned the favor by playing keyboards on 3 , the Femmes’ first new LP in three years. Settled into a comfortable creative torpor, the trio revisits familiar terrain with easy confidence and very little evident artistic ambition or effort: the loudly electric arrangement of “Fool in the Full Moon” is about the extent of the record’s adventures. (The swaying jazzy feel of “Outside the Palace” and the rock beat of the vengeful “Mother of a Girl” make them 3 ‘s only memorable tunes.) Gano’s songwriting and delivery have their usual odd character and some of the old passion, but the Femmes don’t seem to be making much progress or impact in any direction here.

After another lengthy hiatus, the Femmes returned with Why Do Birds Sing? , a stripped-down effort that harks back to Violent Femmes and contains three tunes (“Girl Trouble,” “Life Is a Scream” and “Flamingo Baby”) Gano wrote during the creative frenzy that produced most of the tunes on the first two albums. Despite a decade in the biz, Gano still captures teen angst and frustration better, and more convincingly, than almost anybody. Standouts include “American Music,” the Femme-ization of Culture Club’s “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me” (with new lyrics by Gano), “Out the Window” (a cheery paean to suicide) and “I’m Free,” a goofy, quasi-religious hymn that celebrates the power of love.

Add It Up is a generous and thoughtful 23-track sampler of the band’s career that includes the expected “hits” as well as gems like “Waiting for the Bus” (a 1981 demo that’s been a staple of the band’s live gigs for years), the leering “36-24-36,” “America Is,” a half-studio, half-live version of “Lies” with Ashwin Batish on sitar and the mysterious “Dance, Motherfucker, Dance!” featuring the Horns of Dilemma.

New Times introduces new drummer Guy Hoffman, formerly of BoDeans and the Oil Tasters, in place of De Lorenzo. With the exception of a compressed, pumped-up drum sound and a couple of keyboard accents, the trio’s spartan style remains the same. Nihilism, wiseass bon mots and hopeless love affairs still churn through Gano’s psyche to emerge as high art and low humor. “Don’t Start Me on the Liquor” is typical folk-rock done Femmes style, “Mirror Mirror (I See a Damsel)” sounds like a Russian polka and “I’m Nothing” is as fine an expression of sputtering youthful rage as the band has ever done. The only anomaly is “Machine,” a sophomoric electronic experiment that doesn’t quite work — although that didn’t stop it from being released on an EP along with a remix, “Chinese Rocks” and a live “Color Me Once.” Following Rock!!!!! , a studio album that didn’t initially find a domestic release, the Femmes issued Viva Wisconsin , a live album recorded on tour in October 1998 in the band’s home state. It includes performances of such classics of the canon as “Blister in the Sun,” “Add It Up” and “Country Death Song” but also such dubious Rock!!!!! s as “Dahmer Is Dead,” a song about the slain-in-prison serial cannibal monster from Milwaukee.

Freak Magnet , on which the Femmes hang their music in thick, hard-rocking sheets of sound rather than on a skeletal acoustic frame, is a strong return to form, albeit one the group had not previously done much with. (“Mosh Pit” is aptly punked up in a much more audible sense than the emotional aggression on which the band was founded.) Released, like Viva Wisconsin , on the independent Beyond label, the album was held up for several years after the band was dropped from its Interscope deal.

Something’s Wrong , available only online, is a collection of outtakes from recent records that also contains demos and studio experiments.

Ritchie’s solo debut (“dedicated to Sun Ra, Son House and my son Silas”) shows off his diverse musical interests, from topical blues to avant-garde exotica and beyond. Joined by various players, he sings and handles guitar, banjo, flute, recorder, accordion and other instruments, leaving most of the bass chores to Cynthia Bartell of Têtes Noires. (He and De Lorenzo had earlier produced her group’s Clay Foot Gods LP.) Not all of the excursions work equally well, but The Blend certainly proves that Ritchie’s talents extend far beyond his role in the Femmes.

Using a wide variety of instruments (from conch and ocarina to bass flute, baritone sax, Arabic tabla and kalimba), Ritchie and his four talented sidemen still manage to sound entirely organic — even a little plain — on Sonic Temple & Court of Babylon . While the folky music has a nice rustic feel, Ritchie’s lyrics are far less friendly. In an artless but adequate voice, he fires off splenetic attacks on Christianity, American mores, capitalism and someone who deceived him, taking time to praise Sun Ra and marvel at life within some Arabic castle. (Imagine the arguments he and Gano must have…)

With the countryfied sarcasm of “Religion Ruined My Life” and the Middle Easternisms of “2 Tongues, 2 Minds,” I See a Noise repeats two of Ritchie’s previous themes, but he applies far more wit, humor and imagination this time. Playing down-to-earth music — an acoustic and electric mix with easy, direct appeal — he offers wry and funny (often autobiographical) commentary on such topics as death, babies and Ernest Hemingway. Easily the best of Ritchie’s albums.

The last Femme to strike out on his own, Victor De Lorenzo sings (sort of), drums, percusses and, for one song, plays guitar and keyboards on Peter Corey Sent Me , an intriguing and thoughtfully artistic effort that resembles the Bonzo Dog Band in dada spirit, if not humor. No two tracks are alike (except perhaps in their literate, idiosyncratic lyrics and eloquently understated execution); the stylistic compote of country, noir jazz, spoken musical comedy, 12-bar African chanting, folk, Talking Headsy rock, continental balladry, etc. unfolds to reveal many delightful surprises.

See also: BoDeans , Gordon Gano , Têtes Noires , Maureen (Moe) Tucker

Influential Alt Band Violent Femmes to Perform Their Iconic First Two Albums Each Night During Fall Tour

Article contributed by dmk publicity | published on wednesday, may 22, 2024.

Seminal Alt Rockers Violent Femmes will be giving fans a one-two punch this Fall when they perform BOTH their ground-breaking, debut, self-titled album and their sophomore release, Hallowed Ground, during a special limited run of shows. This exclusive routing kicks off Thursday, September 26 at the House of Blues in Lake Buena Vista, FL, and runs through Tuesday, October 8, culminating at the Avondale Brewing Company in Birmingham, AL.

Tickets go on sale Friday, May 24 at 10 AM local time at https://vfemmes.com/tour .

Throughout these unprecedented performances, the Femmes will start the show by playing their second album, Hallowed Ground, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2024. Following a brief intermission, the band will retake the stage and play their debut record, Violent Femmes, as well as a few fan- and band-favorites to finish the show. Serving as a sonic time capsule for the soul, these special dates will capture a pivotal moment in music as Femmes’ Lead Vocalist and Guitarist Gordon Gano wrote the songs for both albums while he was still in high school. In fact, the tracks for Hallowed Ground were penned long before the release of Violent Femmes, but the band wanted to focus on upbeat songs for the debut album and wanted to “confuse people” with the more experimental songs that ended up as Hallowed Ground.

The result was two unique releases that showcased very different sides of the Violent Femmes. Their eponymous record, once hailed as the “soundtrack to male puberty,” amplified teenage angst and alienation in the 1980s with such songs as “Kiss Off,” “Add It Up,” and “Gone Daddy Gone.” The album, which was mostly autobiographical, would later prove to embody some of the most relatable and enduring anthems of a disenchanted youth that the world has ever known. And while it took the album 10 years to go Platinum and hit the Billboard Top 200, it has now sold three million copies worldwide and is still in rotation on today’s top rock stations, cementing it as more than a simple battle cry for misunderstood adolescence. Today, it stands as a pillar of an American underground movement, and one of the best early examples of alternative rock.

Meanwhile, Hallowed Ground, which incorporated elements of country, gospel, and blues, was a surprise to many critics and fans who were expecting another collection of teen-rage punk songs. Instead, what they received was an eclectic piece of art that not only fused different genres and sounds but also ideals and imagery that only a pubescent Gano could write. Songs like the bold and bluesy "Sweet Misery Blues" and the banjo-fueled "Country Death Song" proved that the Femmes are nothing if not true to themselves, and stands as a tribute to their resilience, bravery, and unwavering indifference to the scrutiny of the industry. 40 years later, Hallowed Ground continues to mystify and excite listeners. Which was what the Femmes planned all along.

For the remainder of the ’90s, Violent Femmes continued to record new material, while their earliest songs remained in the zeitgeist, thanks to popular shows and films like “My So-Called Life,” Reality Bites, and Grosse Pointe Blank. Since that time, the band has released 10 studio albums including their most recent Hotel Last Resort (2019). Today, Violent Femmes continues to resonate with audiences of all ages. Upon the band’s 40th anniversary, Pitchfork wrote that “The Femmes don’t signify an era so much as a time of life,” adding that “for young people growing up in the internet age” their music “is part of a shared language.”

The official tour dates are as follows:

Dates subject to change .

September 26                          House of Blues                                     Lake Buena Vista, FL

September 27                          Pompano Beach Amphitheater               Pompano Beach, FL

September 28                          Jannus Live                                          St. Petersburg, FL

September 29                          St. Augustine Amphitheatre                   St. Augustine, FL

October 1                                 The Charleston Music Hall                     Charleston, SC

October 2                                 The Ritz                                                Raleigh, NC

October 4                                 Old Forester’s Paristown Hall                 Louisville, KY

October 5                                 Rabbit Rabbit                                       Asheville, NC

October 8                                 Avondale Brewing Company                  Birmingham, AL                       

For more information, visit https://vfemmes.com .

• Violent Femmes

LATEST ARTICLES

Be A Part Of The Grateful Web

Check us out on facebook.

Grateful Web

Progressive jam giants Umphrey's McGee‘s return to Las Vegas for the seventh installment of the massively popular UMBowl production was marked once again by a stand-out tour closing dual evening extravaganza where all stops were pulled out and the power given directly to the fans, for better or for worse.

On June 24, Round Records & ATO Records will release GarciaLive Volume Six: July 5, 1973 – Jerry Garcia & Merl Saunders, the latest installment of the celebrated GarciaLive archival series. The three-CD set was recorded at the 200 capacity Lion’s Share club formerly located in the small town of San Anselmo, CA, just 20 miles north of San Francisco. The performance features Jerry Garcia performing with friend, mentor and legendary keyboardist/vocalist Merl Saunders. The duo is joined by drummer Bill Vitt and bassist John Kahn, who soon became a lifelong Garcia collaborator.

COPYRIGHT © 1995 - 2024 GRATEFUL WEB, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Violent Femmes

Doors open at 6:30PM

Violent Femmes formed in 1981 as an acoustic punk band playing on the streets of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Their main influences at that time were Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps and The Velvet Underground. Their goal was to rock harder than any other acoustic act on the planet.

After being rejected for an audition by a local nightclub, the Femmes set up outside a Pretenders gig and began to play. Pretenders’ lead singer Chrissie Hynde asked them to open that night’s show, which gave the young band a publicity boost and caught the attention of Richard Hell, who invited the Femmes to open for him in NYC. A rave review in the New York Times eventually led to a record deal, which in turn spawned worldwide touring.

Violent Femmes eponymous debut album became the first and only album in Billboard history to enter the charts with a platinum certification- eight years after its release. Over the ensuing three decades, the Femmes became a mainstay of festivals, clubs, and theaters in more than 20 countries worldwide.

MTV’s “Unplugged” show was inspired by the Femmes, although they never actually appeared on it. Their raw sound and honest lyrical perspective has been cited as an influence by artists as diverse as Pink, Keith Urban, The Smiths, The Pixies, John Cusack, Mark Morris, and Wim Wenders.

More than 40 years into their careers, Violent Femmes continue to attract young audiences on tour, create lasting music, and inspire people of all ages.

Violent Femmes

May 17, 2024.

4343 Kellogg Avenue

Cincinnati, Ohio 45226

Event Details

Seminal Alt Rockers Violent Femmes will be giving fans a one-two punch when they perform BOTH their ground-breaking, debut, self-titled album and their sophomore release, Hallowed Ground , from cover to cover at Riverfront Live on Friday, May 17.

Doors at 6:30PM, Show at 8PM

‍ Standard Admission: $45 advance Pit: $50 advance 4-Person VIP High-Top Table: $65 per ticket (must buy all 4) 6-Person Picnic Table: $60 per ticket (must buy all 6) Outdoor Show - Rain or Shine

Violent Femmes formed in 1981 as an acoustic punk band playing on the streets of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Their main influences at that time were Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps and The Velvet Underground. Their goal was to rock harder than any other acoustic act on the planet.

After being rejected for an audition by a local nightclub, the Femmes set up outside a Pretenders gig and began to play. Pretenders’ lead singer Chrissie Hynde asked them to open that night’s show, which gave the young band a publicity boost and caught the attention of Richard Hell, who invited the Femmes to open for him in NYC. A rave review in the New York Times eventually led to a record deal, which in turn spawned worldwide touring.

Violent Femmes eponymous debut album became the first and only album in Billboard history to enter the charts with a platinum certification- eight years after its release. Over the ensuing three decades, the Femmes became a mainstay of festivals, clubs, and theaters in more than 20 countries worldwide.

MTV’s “Unplugged” show was inspired by the Femmes, although they never actually appeared on it. Their raw sound and honest lyrical perspective has been cited as an influence by artists as diverse as Pink, Keith Urban, The Smiths, The Pixies, John Cusack, Mark Morris, and Wim Wenders.

More than 40 years into their careers, Violent Femmes continue to attract young audiences on tour, create lasting music, and inspire people of all ages.  

Website built by Mastro.io

(513)417-4555

[email protected]

4343 Kellogg Avenue Cincinnati, Ohio 45226

• Statistics Stats
• You are here:
• Violent Femmes
• Tour Statistics
• Song Statistics Stats
• Tour Statistics Stats
• Other Statistics

All Setlists

• All setlist songs  ( 1276 )

Years on tour

• 2024  ( 16 )
• 2023  ( 31 )
• 2022  ( 37 )
• 2021  ( 30 )
• 2020  ( 5 )
• 2019  ( 36 )
• 2018  ( 32 )
• 2017  ( 39 )
• 2016  ( 74 )
• 2015  ( 38 )
• 2014  ( 25 )
• 2013  ( 9 )
• 2007  ( 36 )
• 2006  ( 46 )
• 2005  ( 35 )
• 2004  ( 30 )
• 2003  ( 22 )
• 2002  ( 26 )
• 2001  ( 8 )
• 2000  ( 30 )
• 1999  ( 48 )
• 1998  ( 51 )
• 1997  ( 36 )
• 1996  ( 36 )
• 1995  ( 32 )
• 1994  ( 44 )
• 1993  ( 28 )
• 1992  ( 77 )
• 1991  ( 59 )
• 1990  ( 26 )
• 1989  ( 45 )
• 1988  ( 1 )
• 1987  ( 1 )
• 1986  ( 37 )
• 1985  ( 34 )
• 1984  ( 70 )
• 1983  ( 39 )
• 1982  ( 5 )
• 1981  ( 2 )

Show all tours

• 105.3 Show  ( 1 )
• 1992 MTV 120 Minutes Tour  ( 1 )
• 1995 Australian Tour  ( 5 )
• 3  ( 34 )
• 40th Anniversary of Debut Album  ( 18 )
• An Acoustic Christmas  ( 1 )
• Australia All Over 2017  ( 12 )
• Eternal Teenagers Tour  ( 1 )
• Hallowed Ground Tour  ( 36 )
• Last Summer On Earth tour  ( 2 )
• Lollapalooza 1991  ( 8 )
• Lollapalooza 1996  ( 4 )
• MGD Mistletoe Jam  ( 1 )
• New Times  ( 1 )
• Rock!!!!!  ( 1 )
• Summer 2017  ( 22 )
• United States Co-headline Tour 2021  ( 1 )
• Viva Wisconsin  ( 1 )
• Why Do Birds Sing?  ( 1 )
• World Tour 2020  ( 5 )
• Avg Setlist

Concert Map

• Jun 17, 2024
• Jun 16, 2024
• Jun 15, 2024
• Jun 14, 2024
• Jun 13, 2024
• Jun 12, 2024
• FAQ | Help | About
• Terms of Service
• Ad Choices | Privacy Policy
• Feature requests
• Songtexte.com