04-19-00

Best viewed with COURIER NEW size 10
maximized screen

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The Quote Of The Day:

If you are lucky I’ll play in your city…
And you can come see me, If you got the money..
-From More Money Tonight.
-Submitted by LilBoek

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

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) SOLD OUT?
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!

Seattle, WA
———–
Lilboek (Steve)

Portland, OR
————
Lilboek (Steve)

New York, NY
————
RatFink746 (Frank)

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WEB PAGES:

Official: http://www.vfemmes.com

Unofficial: http://tinpan.fortunecity.com/bluenote/936/
http://www.bigfoot.com/~planetblue
http://www.geocities.com/kittricken/
http://geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Show/6806/
http://www.violentfemmes.net
http://www.homestead.com/lucylittleland/vf.html
http://www.fortunecity.com/campus/bates/377/
http://www.geocities.com/thefemmeking/

Yahoo Chat: http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/newtimesviolentfemmesclub

Message Board:
http://www.insidetheweb.com/messageboard/mbs.cgi?acct=mb870757&TL=

Past Tour Dates:
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Lounge/1725/femmes/femmes.html

Guitar: http://therapy.lost.net.au/femmes
http://www.angelfire.com/hi/VFemmes

Glenn Gano’s Page: http://www.alaska.net/~ggano

Charm Records: http://www.charmrec.com

Victor DeLorenzo’s Page: http://victordelorenzo.com

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

Tickets Needed
Providence Review
RE: Ticket Prices
RE: Freak Magnet and Prices
RE: Freak Magnet
RE: Freak Magnet
RE: Freak Magnet
RE: Freak Magnet
RE: Freak Magnet
RE: Freak Magnet

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Tickets Needed
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Hey Pat and all other fans,
I’m from Columbus, OH and wanting to attend the show in Chicago this
weekend but it seems to be sold out—can anyone help?? I need 4
tickets—please, if you can help, I’m desperate!

arine

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Providence Review
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first off, i’m a terrible reviewer. that said, both concerts were
great. boston was definetly more mellow, with more ballad-type songs
being played. gordon’s comment after opening with “rejoice and be
happy” in boston was amusing as all hell. he said “now that wasn’t a
song that anybody came here going ‘i don’t know what i’m gonna do if
they don’t play that’…but it’s the first song, it’s alright.” i love
how laidback they can be onstage.
providence was the converse of boston, with a lot more of a rock n’
roll feel. one of the greatest things about the femmes is that they
can turn on you any time they feel like it. so, they gave providence a
stiff dose of rock. i can’t remember the specific songs. (boston was
my 19th femmes show and providence my 20th, so forgive my memory) at
any rate, they were monstrously good as always. i’m glad sigmund
snopek III has been playing with them. i think he adds a lot of flavor
to the live show. the most noteworthy thing between both shows was at
the end of the providence show. brian began playing his cat in the hat
theremin. now, that’s nothing new, (amusing as always, but not new).
what was new was the fact that he set it down at the edge of the lupo’s
stage and began playing it with his butt. i don’t think i’m alone in
saying that it was the high point of the gig. i was lucky enough to
play with them again, which i will never get over. it can happen 300
more times and i will still never get over it. we played “gone daddy
gone”. i guess it could be said that i was a bit biased towards the
providence gig. ah well. i hope you all had as much fun as i did.

Ron Dumont – “Crazy tattoo guy”
Nevertell6
http://www.camelliarocks.com/
http://www.gotpoetry.com/

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RE: Ticket Prices
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I promise this will be the last thing I have to say about ticket prices
and philosophy… 🙂

Bands (including the Femmes) do have control over where they play and
how they play. I cite personal experience here, booking my band and
others in an effort to get an independent record company off the
ground (www.bastardrecords.com). Where you play doesn’t say as much as
how you play, obviously. How you play should be for the people who
love and are influenced by your music (musicianship, spiritually, etc.).
In this way I feel bands like Fugazi and the Femmes (both of whom I’ve
seen at Metropol when I was at CMU) have been much the same in the
past. I would consider both the Femmes and Fugazi (two of my favorite
bands) to have been generally straight-edge(ish) punk.

But, I know that bands change too. Fugazi as a whole is no longer
straight-edge for example. It is rumored that Ian McKay finds ways to
get photographed with a beer in his hands these days, of course he has
a long time girlfriend. I don’t think that he smokes though 🙂 He
can still fuckin’ think. Of course the writing is still very
anti-stuff that hurts people.

And the Femmes are probably getting fed up with the insincerity of
their audiences. I don’t believe personally that the throng of people
at VF shows really appreciate the sincerity and magic that have come
from the VF stage over the years. After playing music for almost 20
years, I’m sure that can burn you out. Especially, as the crowd gets
bigger and emotional exchange gets smaller. So going for the cash
before people are disinterested may be ticket (pun intended). Some
bands mistakenly think that raising the price will only attract the
people who really like them, I don’t believe that (American economy =
“It’s the year 2000 EXPECT to pay more”). OR you can choose your
venues, choose the songs you play, choose the price of the music. I
think this is a better strategy for the Femmes if they want to keep
the hard core fans (speaking personally of course). If they would
play smaller places and forget to play those 3 songs at a couple of
shows their Frat boy friends (and majority of their audience) would go
away pretty soon I bet. Then you and I would still be looking up
starry-eyed at them at their shows (and probably want to buy Freak
Magnet more…I doubt that more than %5 of the people at the $25.00
show in DC will ever own a future VF album). In a way the Femmes will
have re-invented themselves. Which is something the terribly need to
do.

A great poet once said,
“America is the home of the hypocrite” and “my nose don’t work, but
I smell trouble”

Jesse
jesse

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RE: Freak Magnet and Prices
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i for the most part like freak magnet. i do think it sounds like
something they would do more so than new times which is my least
favorite femmes album. i have had to let new times really grow on me
and i still think it is their worst album.
another comment on ticket prices. i don’t know what concerts you all
have been going to but the concerts i have been to have been about $40
average. so $20 for the femmes is not unreasonable. The only concert
that was cheaper was R.E.M back on the green tour and I doubt it would
be that cheap to see them now. they wouldn’t even play where I saw them
first their next tour they where “too big” for the arena. Even though
Michael Stipe had attended SIU (southern Illinois university). The
tickets where only $16 . I have to admit that the opening act was
someone I had never heard of. I cant even remember his name now but
he only did covers. So I did feel cheated there. But I would have paid
the $20 just for the femmes.

Rudykitten

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RE: Freak Magnet
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i heard freak magnet last summer…just the song……and i havn’t
listened to the femmes since….(just good feeling in the shower…and
just once i promise…..)
the lyrics seemed very cheesey……i understand their humor but
something was different with this song….it made me feel the same way
that i feel when i hear silver chair say stuff about the year
2,000—-terrible…..

i’ll get the album sometime just because it’s a femmes album but that
just doesn’t seem right anymore…oh well

kyle
Kyle_Souza

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RE: Freak Magnet
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I’d have to say that in my opinion one of the signs of a great band is
controversy. A band’s ability to create and overcome controversy
amongst its fans shows a lot of strength and balls. Not only have the
Femmes taken a step away from the norm, they have put their core
audience at risk by choosing music that perhaps does not apeal to them,
and instead music that will perhaps appeal to a younger generation of
Femmes fans, a wider expanse of listeners, or perhaps no one. I think
that says a lot about the band that they are willing to take such risks.
Let us go back several years to when albums such as Rock and Hallowed
Ground were released, if my memory serves me right, at least amongst
the Femmes fans with whom I am friends, there was a lot of controversy
about, “does this suck? is this femmes quality music? what the hell is
this?” And in the end it turned out that Rock was arguably the best
femmes record around. Now it took time to grow on us, but it did, and
so will freak magnet. I got Freak Magnet when the ORIGINAL copy was
sort of but not really released, and I have to admit I didn’t think it
was that good. But it grew on me, and this newer version, which I
happen to think is better than the original, is growing on me too. I
can understand why some hard core fans would disapprove of the step the
Femmes have taken away from their norm, but wasn’t one of the reasons
the Femmes were always so great their ability to change and adapt in
a revolutionary way that nobody could have guessed?
That’s my humble opinion.

-Beky
Extatika

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RE: Freak Magnet
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Listening to all the mixed reviews of Freak Magnet makes me think that
the Femmes still have the edge that makes them stand apart from other
bands. Over the years, each album released has been different than
preceding ones and I often was disappointed on my first listen. I was
expecting to hear the “old” Femmes but their sound had changed. After a
while I came to enjoy, if not love, each album. This is one of the
charms that the femmes offer. If a band does not evolve and grow then
they will quickly lose their appeal. Although I love the Femmes’ older
material I now find that Freak Magnet is growing on me each time I
listen to it. Freak Magnet contains a range of musical styles from the
hard driving mid 80’s style on “I’m Bad” and “Freak Magnet” to overtones
of Frank Zappa on “A Story” and the Eastern influence of Brian Ritchie
on “In the Dark”. “Rejoice and be Happy” is one of Gano’s finest
spiritual songs in the style of “Jesus Walking on the Water”. All in
all I love Freak Magnet.

Let’s not forget about Viva Wisconsin. That live acoustical sound is
what they do best. I am looking forward to hearing them play again when
they come to play at the Commodore in Vancouver on May 4. And I will
gladly pay the $29.50 to see them again.

Glenn
pwnordic

I’m sure everyone is entitled to their opinion, so if you don’t like Freak
Magnet, that’s fine. But, it seems like most people who really like the
Violent Femmes like them because they don’t follow the same formula for
every album. There were some that were more commercially successful than
others, but it didn’t stop them from trying other things. To me, all of
their different styles are like different facets of their personalities. But
I do have to admit, some of their CDs aren’t as good at first as they are
after you’ve had them awhile (at least for me). But in my case, the ones I
didn’t like as much at first have ended up to be my favorites, I think
because they were different; more complex, maybe. I don’t know. But as much
as I like their CDs, nothing holds a candle to their live performances,
anyway. And even bad Violent Femmes songs on a CD would be absolutely
fabulous in concert!

Julie
jjwil90

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RE: Freak Magnet
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I don’t know about other femmes fans except for the ones I talk to on a
regular basis. I don’t think I’ve ever liked a Femmes album the first
five times I listened to them. The first time I listened to New Times
I put it away for about three months because I couldn’t believe that
the Femmes could make such a bad album. Now it’s one of my favorite
albums. Just because initial opinions about Freak Magnet may seem bad,
only time will tell. Side note: so far “A Story” is the real meat of
the album. Has a Jesus of Rio quality about it that I like.

LilBoek

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RE: Freak Magnet
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The whole teenage fan/veteran fan debate really bothers me… and I
don’t want it to start again. I also don’t want it to influence
anyone’s view of FREAK MAGNET. I really don’t understand how the album
is more geared towards a teenage audience. Teenagers don’t read
William Carlos Williams poetry– or at least, I don’t hear the
Backstreet Boys singing his poetry…
I’d say teens are more interested in a different WCW these days
(although I’m not a teen and not an expert on what teens like). If
“MOSH PIT” is what people listen to when they think the album is aimed
at teens, then I have to disagree there too. I think it’s hilarious,
after all the arguments on the American Music and ROCK!! lists about
moshing at Femmes concerts. I don’t think they’re saying “Look, we can
do a song you can mosh to! We’re young and hip!” Rather, I think
they’re saying “Isn’t it silly to mosh to Femmes songs? Mosh to this
one.” Plus, I’m sure it’s fun to slam the PUNK in there. Anyway,
that’s my counterpoint to negative reviews of FM.

Jared
pez

-Pat. Says: I think everybody should know that the person who wrote the
original post about Freak Magnet resubbed after a long
absence, wrote the nasty review, and promptly unsubbed.
I think I’ll write and thank him for breathing new life
into this newsletter.

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