04-17-00

Best viewed with COURIER NEW size 10
maximized screen

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The Quote Of The Day:

someone suck me
late last evening
and it was time to
make a change
-From Sleepwalkin’
-Submitted by hbedard

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TOUR DATES (NEW TOUR DATES MARKED WITH **):

Apr 18- 7:30 p.m., 9:30 Club, Washington DC, $25 (P,T,O)
Apr 20- 8 p.m., Warehouse, Toronto, ON, CAN, $22.50 (P,O,T-Ca)
Apr 21- 6:30 p.m., State Theatre, Detroit, MI, $24.25 (P,T,O)
Apr 22- 7:30 p.m., Riviera Theatre, Chicago, IL, $20 (P,T,O)
Apr 24- 7:30 p.m., Orpheum Theatre, Minneapolis, MN, $26.50 (P,O,T)
Apr 25- Bemidji St. University, Bemidji MN (P,O)
Apr 27- 8 p.m., Investors Gym, Winnipeg, MB, CAN, $26.50 (P,O,T-Ca)
Apr 28- 8 p.m., Centennial Auditorium, Saskatoon, SK, CAN, $25 (P,O,T-Ca)
Apr 29- MacEwan Hall, Calgary, AB, CAN (P,O)
Apr 30- Wild Bill’s, Banff, AB, CAN (P,O)
May 2- 8 p.m., Shaw Conference Centre, Edmonton, AB, CAN, $29.50 (P,O,T-Ca)
May 4- 8 p.m., Vancouver, BC, CAN $29.50 (O,T-Ca)
May 5- 8 p.m., Moore Theatre, Seattle, WA, $19.50 (P,O,T)
May 6- 8 p.m., Moore Theatre, Seattle, WA, $19.50 (P,O,T)
May 7- Crystal Ballroom, Portland, OR (P,O)
May 9- 8 p.m., Warfield, San Francisco, CA, $22.50 (O, T)
May 10- 8 p.m., Wilshire Theatre, Los Angeles, CA, $30 (T,O)
May 14- Student Festival, Braga, POR (O)
May 16- Zeleste, Barcelona, SP (O)
May 17- University Festival, Faro, POR (O)
May 18- Student Festival, Beja, POR (O)
Oct 25-7 p.m., Hammerstein Ballroom, NYC, NY (T)

NOTA BENE: ‘O’ stands for the Official homepage
‘P’ stands for Pollstar
‘T’ stands for Ticketmaster
‘I’ stands for Insider Info
All other references are subscribers

To book a show:
in the US, contact Frank Riley at Monterey Peninsula Artists
in EU, contact Paul Boswell at Free Trade Agency
Serious inquiries only.

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WHO/WHERE
Going to a VF concert? Want to know if anyone
else on the list also going? Check here first!

Washington, DC (4/18)
———————
Gluegirl (Danica)
Rubaiyat (Marylee)

Seattle, WA
———–
Lilboek (Steve)

Portland, OR
————
Lilboek (Steve)

New York, NY
————
RatFink746 (Frank)

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WEB PAGES:

See Wednesday’s issue for the full listing of Femmes-related pages.

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ALL CORRESPONDENCE CONCERNING THIS LETTER SHOULD BE DIRECTED TO
AMUSIC
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In Today’s Issue:

Boston/Providence
RE: Ticket Prices
RE: Ticket Prices
My Opinion
RE: Prices, Freak Magnet
RE: Freak Magnet
RE: Freak Magnet
Sleepwalkin’

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Boston/Providence
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Well, I made it to the Boston show (which was great!), but I missed
the Providence show.

Can anyone send reports?

I enjoy the shows so much that I can never give a good report. The
songs go by one by one (I don’t write down the set list) and I just
dance and drink and sing (to the chagrin of those around me) until
the show sadly comes to an end.

They surprised me, actually. The last show I saw was summerish ’99 in
Denver (LoDo Festival); It was really not up to par. I was afraid
they had stopped enjoying touring. Saturday night, however, was
really great.

This show, they seemed to play a lot from the First Album, Hallowed
Ground and Freak Magnet. (And they played in front of a Freak Magnet
album-cover banner.)

They began with “Rejoice” which got a surprisingly good response.
Gordon said “I know no one came here hoping to hear that song. No one
came saying ‘Ooh, if they don’t play ‘Rejoice and Be Happy,’ I don’t
know what I’ll do!’ ”

I yelled “You’re wrong!” Or something like that. I’d had a few beers.

They also played “A Story” as one of their encores, which was more
fun in person than on the album. The rest of the show is a blur for
me — except I remember that when Brian introduced Gordon, the
applause kind of petered out because he stretched it out so long and
everyone applauded “Gordon”, but by the time he said “Gano”, it was
lost in the applause, which quickly then sputtered out. Gordon
actually looked hurt.

Overall, though, I thoroughly enjoyed the evening.

I was hoping to run into someone from the list, but it’s not like we
are obvious to each other. I was probably the biggest guy there —
about 6’6″ and 380, with a beard. Maybe someone saw me. And if you’re
a cute young woman, I probably saw you, too. 🙂 I usually come home
from concerts with little mini-crushes on women I’ll never see again.

Anyway — someone please let us know about the Providence show!

Thanks!

–James
—
—
James Welborn
welborn

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RE: Ticket Prices
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No, you are not full of hot air. Other bands charge way more for
tickets than $20 — $25.
the rolling stones played at the horseshoe here in Columbus and tickets
were $75 dollars for the cheap seats.

Rudykitten

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RE: Ticket Prices
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I’d have to agree a bit with Jesse. Fugazi does keep there prices down.
But comparing the Femmes and Fugazi is like comparing apples and
oranges. I’ll get into that later. First let’s talk about the mighty
TicketBastard and it’s nasty habit of raping the masses when it comes
to ticket prices. Let’s compare and contrast shall we. The Crowbar is
a nifty little (a emphasize the word LITTLE) club in State College, PA,
45 minutes from where I live. The are an independent club that books
bands outside the large corporate machine. When Ozzfest came through
either last year or the year before they had a five band bill (Coal
Chamber, Sevendust, Drain STH, and two other bands that have slipped my
mind) for fifteen dollars. Not to shabby.
Now the Metropol which is in Pittsburgh about 2 hours from where I live
charged me, I think it was, twenty-two bucks to see the Femmes and this
crappy local band called, Bitter Deloris, or something along those
lines (Which is kind of ironic because the band wasn’t that bitter at
all. In fact they were annoyingly cheerful.) Metropol is part of the
TicketBastard machine. So they do jack up the prices. I’m pretty sure,
but don’t quote me on this, that clubs have to pay a certain amount to
have the TicketMaster name brand stamped on them. In return they get
a more advertising then they would other wise be able to afford and
people from a longer distance away will be more likely to come to shows
if they can order tickets from home, work, whatever. (For instance I
live in Western PA but was able to order tickets for the ’98 Halloween
show in Milwaukee, WI from the TicketMaster outlet in my local mall.
Got front row center too… Well front row center for those of use who
aren’t related to anyone in the band.) On the other had TicketMaster
can jack up their service fee (which I believe is $3.50 per ticket)
anytime they want and there isn’t a whole hell of a lot anyone can do
about it. So basically you are going to get the shaft whenever they
are involved. As far as the roll of the Violent Femmes in the whole
mess, they have admitted to being “staunch capitalists” which
automatically includes and need to make cash. It’s about the money,
maybe not altogether but it probably has a lot to do with it. You have
to ask yourself, realistically, would the band be together if they
weren’t making any money, probably not. After all Brian and Guy have
kids who need clothes and food and skateboards and stereos and ponies
and you know stuff. And plus I think we can all admit that it would be
nice to live comfortably with out having to worry about bills and crap
like that. Which isn’t easy if you play music for a living. (Which
reminds me SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL MUSIC SCENE!!! Your next favorite band
could be the annoying kids making all that racket in your neighbors
garage.)I know bands that play nothing but original music which is
what they want to do all the time but can’t because they can’t afford
to quit their day jobs. It’s not an easy route to go. So I can
understand the Femmes charging large sums to have them play somewhere.
Now Fugazi on the other hand is a completely different story. As long
as you give them money for food and gas they will pretty much play at
your sweet sixteen party (I’m exagerating a little there.) For those
of you who know nothing about Fugazi they are a straight edge band,
meaning no booze, no drugs, no broads, and I think they would drop
their pants and wave their asses at the whole capatalist bullshit
thing. I also think they make it a point to avoid places that are
going to ream there fan base for money. Pretty much from what I found
out when I was trying to get them booked at the place I used to work
at (which I then realized was moronic to book a straight edge band
into a bar. I’m such a dumb ass sometimes.) is that they specifically
state what the ticket price is to be. So if you paid $5 to see them
and another band it’s because that’s the price they thought was fair.
It’s 150% about the music with Fugazi, fuck the money. And to say that
not as many people have heard of Fugazi is totally uniformed. They are
huge with the musicians around here in think the Femmes fans in my
area are out numbered at least 20 to 2 when it comes to Fugazi. (20
being the number of people I can think of off hand around here that are
into Fugazi and the 2 being me and one other guy I know that are into
the Femmes. And when I say into I do not include “Oh don’t they play
that song that goes 1,1,1, cause…) So basically my point is to expect
the Femmes to play for the same amount of money as Fugazi is a little
ridiculous. They are two band with two completely differnet
philosophies about making and splitting money.
That’s it that’s all of it. Now I have to go practice for my guitar
lesson with my tone deaf teacher on Wednesday. (I dread him saying
“hear let me tune you guitar before we get started.”)

Kathryn
kittricken

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My Opinion
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I just had to write and respond to a couple of things that I was just
reading in the latest newsletter!
The first response goes to Chris about Freak Magnet……I happen to
think that this is a great CD! I will admit that the first time I
listened to it, I was thinking, “This doesn’t sound like something that
the Femmes would do.” But after I listened to it more and more, I
began to love it. It’s got such a variety of style, that I would
figure any true fan could find something that hit the spot for them
personally. But I guess you don’t feel that way.
My other response is to Jesse about ticket prices. Sure, we would all
like to be able to pay $6 for tickets, but this is now the year 2000,
and that just doesn’t happen. And the way I see it is I would pay just
about anything to see the band. I get such a rush off seeing the 3 of
them in concert and the fact that they only come to my area about once
a year, I figure that you can’t really put a price on that!! I do
agree with Pat in the fact that venues and Ticketmaster, those money
sucking jerks do add quite a bit onto the initial price of tickets. I
know that I purchased 4 tickets for the Providence show and ended up
paying over $10 just to TM!!!! Anyway, I am headed off to get all my
fun stuff ready, cuz I’m headed out to Boston tomorrow morning to go
see my favorite band!!!!!!!!!!! And then yes, I did splurge and will
also be in Providence Sunday night front row and center as always to
see them again!!!!!!!!!!
So this was so lengthly, I just had to voice my opinion and I’m a
little high strung right now just thinking about the fact that at this
time tomorrow night, I will be looking at the guys face to face!!!!

hbedard

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RE: Prices, Freak Magnet
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This is in regards to the ticket price thing. The violent femmes do
have control over what venues they play in. So they should have
complete control over there prices. Also i thought freak magnet sucked
to. There songs seem so insincere on that record I can’t stand it.
It’s really sad to think that were losing one of the greatest bands
around. Or maybe they have always been this way and were just better at
hiding it. They need to quit now while they still have some dignity.

wes
jek66

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RE: Freak Magnet
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–“you’ve all heard the new album i take it? it’s been out for a few
weeks here in australia and i’ve got to say, there is *no* way i’m
going to buy this album! (it’s terrible) i’ll continue to let it grow
on me (as unlikely as it is), this album is *no* New Times! 😉 It is
a very poor attempt at hitting the teenage first femmes album angst
market?”–

wow, this is the first opinion I think I’ve read from this list on the
new album. I have yet to buy it for two reasons…what this person
said and it’s too expensive ($15.99-17.99??? yeah right!) I’ve heard
all the songs except for the five newest ones, and the others didn’t
impress me much…in other news, I’ve realized that my favorite VF
song is now “Eep opp ork ah-ah”, what a cute song!

well, that’s all for now…Later, Ryan

rcbarbato

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RE: Freak Magnet
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Im sorry, but i reckon that freak magnet is one of their best. at
first, i must admit that i didnt like it all that much, but after
buying it, it has grown on me alot. even though it isnt at all like
their older stuff, i still reckon that it rocks unlike anything. if
you are a true fan, you will like whatever they put out, and give no
real critisisms.

cheers
Jaan
fellfrasch

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Sleepwalkin’
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does anyone have the lyrics for sleepwalkin’ ….if the song has
words….(haven’t heard it but i’m curious)

Kyle_Souza

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