08-12-98 -

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The Quote Of The Day:

You look like you could be the mother of a boy
A boy who bored me more than any other man in the land
the way that he dogged me like I was totally a jerk
I wanted to permanently pound his prick into the dirt
-From Mother of a Girl
-Submitted by mypen15

Send your VF quotes to amusic

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NEW TOUR DATES:

**Sept. 20- Fresno County Fairgrounds, Fresno, CA (P)**

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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!

Myrtle Beach, SC
—————-
Greg.Ward

DC/Columbia, MD
—————-
demigoddess (Suesyn)

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ALL CORRESPONDENCE CONCERNING THIS LETTER SHOULD BE DIRECTED TO
AMUSIC
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WEB PAGES:

Official: http://www.vfemmes.com

Unofficial: http://vf.scopemag.com if this doesn’t work, try:
http://206.103.163.50
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Palladium/6918
VF Message
Board: http://red.cscwc.pima.edu/~cstaley/femmes/board.html

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

Guitar: http://www.angelfire.com/hi/VFemmes
http://www.smug.adelaide.edu.au/~therapy/violent_femmes/

Une banane:Send in your top five faves each week to:
melancon

HERE I AM: Tell me where you live for the Here I Am list.

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In Today’s Issue:

Last Issue?
News From Amber
De Pere Info
Nick’s Page Update
RE: Femmes Records..Hated Song
RE: Hated Song
RE: Hated Song
RE: Hated Song
RE: Interesting Stories
RE: Interesting Stories
RE: Interesting Stories

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Last Issue?
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If anyone had trouble with the last issue (Aug 10), please email
amusic and I will resend it in two parts.

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News From Amber
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Via ddearry, Amber sends the following:

1)She can not access her email till next month.
2)One Burgettstown PA Newport TICKET FOR SALE. Paid $48, but best offer
will be accepted.

Anyone who’s interested please email ddearry
She’ll give you Amber’s phone #. Amber will tell you where you can pick
it up.

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De Pere Info
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No information is avaiable yet about the October 3 show outside Green
Bay at St. Norbert’s College. I called the box office there, and the
girl didn’t even know the show had yet been confirmed. She said they
usually wait until school starts to release a schedule of shows, so
info will probably be available by late August or early September.
She said the shows are usually open to the public (yay), and it sounds
like we won’t have to deal with ticketbastard for this one (YAYAYAYAY)
I’ll keep checking on this one, and post info as soon as I get it.

rob=)
coons

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Nick’s Page Update
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Nick, the keeper of past tour dates, is now including concert reviews
in his webpage. With your permission, he will be taking these off
future issues of AM. Should you desire to send in a complete set list
in addition to your most erudite observations, maybe it would be better
to send that to Nick. That’ll make SOME people happy. Of course a short
listing of new songs, or songs done differently is always welcome, as
long as it is accompanied by a short description. Let’s all try to
stick to that rule.

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RE: Femmes Records..Hated Song
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I’m new to this list and I’ve only read a couple newsletters, so I
haven’t even figured out yet whether this is a small, close-knit list,
a big massive group without any social structure, or what. But what
the hell, I’m just gonna jump right in and respond to Tyler’s letter
about favorite albums…

I have to say that the best album by far is Hallowed Ground. It’s an
incredible exploration of their musical potential and goes far beyond
the promise of their first album. Songs like “I Hear the Rain” and
“Black Girls” seem to be testing the boundaries of music, while “Country
Death Song” and “Jesus Walking..” have incredible popular appear. And
then “Never Tell” is just an all-around excellent song.

God, I sound pretentious. Sorry about that.

Actually, despite what Tyler said about Why Do Birds Sing? being one of
their most popular, it’s probably my least favorite. Not that I dislike
it or anything…it’s still a great cd…but when I start to listen to
it, I generally put it away after one time. When I listen to other
albums, I’ll keep ’em in my cd player for days, until I finally put them
away because I’m afraid I’m becoming mentally unbalanced.

This topic is sort of related to the other one of “what is their worst
song?”…I have to vote for Machine. (Their recent, post-Victor, stuff
has definitely been the most experimental, so it has a lot of their best
and their worst stuff.) But I do think that would be an interesting
style for them to play around with more…Balkan Falcon absolutely
rocks.

(Which reminds me…will people who’ve listened to Freak Magnet tell me
if there are more “Machine”-type songs on it? Or are they going in yet
another direction? Sorry if this was discussed recently. Don’t kill
the new guy.)

Nevin
nsteinda

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RE: Hated Song
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I’d have to say that would be on the Blind Leading the Naked tape. The
extra song by Victor. I don’t even know the name of it. Well, actually
I do, but I’m afraid to admit it. I bought the tape just to get that
song, and I just don’t like it. I own all of Victor’s albums, and, well,
they suck too. And maybe I don’t like the song because I don’t like the
rest of his stuff either… Oh well, it might be cool if Brian sang it
and they spiced it up more with the HoD, but they did not. So there, I
admit it. I don’t even count it as a VF song.

That’s my two cents.
john iii
chicago il
DidacticCP

Joel
SirBoutros

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RE: Hated Song
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alright. so the song that ronnie and i (josh) hate is…”love and me
make three”. it is a cheesy samich of a song. and i feel sorry for
brian ritchie and vic delorenzo because they wrote it. and we would
hate “faith” if it weren’t so funny. none others we can think of

-ruok

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RE: Interesting Stories
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This may not be all that extraordinary, in fact it may be all too
common, but I think it was funny. The first VF show I saw was an hour’s
drive to Cleveland from Erie, PA. I drove myself and two friends to the
show.The show was a blast. Afterwards is what turned into the funnest
part. We had met a large group of people at the show that were from the
same part of PA that we were. We all piled into our cars and drove to
downtown Cleveland’s hot spot known as The Flats. Its a strip of bars
on the waterfront and it has almost a carnival atmosphere and tons of
people. We all proceded to drink way too much and get very obnoxious.
We hopped from bar to bar until after closing time. When the time came
for us to drive home, we were plastered. Not wanting to drive on the
freeway in this condition the three of us decided it would be better to
find a hotel/motel to stay the night. Well, passenger number one passed
out in the backseat before we even got the car started and my copilot
did the same almost right after we pulled out of the parking lot. I
spent about an hour driving from hotel to hotel looking for a room but
they were all booked. I always pulled in under the little awning type
thing at the front door and left the car running while I scoped out the
prospects. My passengers looked like they were dead. The guy in the
front seat looked like an expended crash test dummy the way he was
leaning as far forward as he could against the seatbelt and dashboard.
Now that I think about it those hotels probably had plenty of rooms but
after seeing the carload out front and my sorry ass staggering through
the front door at 3AM…
Anyways, by then I decided to drive home. We stopped at a Burger King
somewhere on I-90 and I got a cup of coffee. I never got a sip ofthe
coffee because the guy in the front seat slumped over onto me and I
spilled the coffee all over my lap and his head while still in the
drivethru window. I was crying from laughing so hard at him, and the
scalding hot coffee burning my legs. I was instantly sober and drove
the rest of the way home after he fell asleep again, bitching about his
coffee head. The next day we all agreed it was the best time we’d had
in a long time, despite them missing the last two hours of our
adventure.

Remember, don’t drive drunk.
If you do, then do us a favor and don’t wear your seatbelt.

-Greg.Ward

-Pat. Says: And make sure you do it on a deserted road.

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RE: Interesting Stories
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My story about how I elbowed (and broke) a crowd surfer’s nose during a
VF show last year is in the Letter’s Page pretty close to the top on the
VF webpage. I’ll reprint it (edited, in some parts for Pat’s kids) here
with my own permission.
—————-
Here’s a story of rage from a real femme. . .

Oct 9, 1997. Benedictine University, Lisle IL. Lately, crowd surfers
have been my biggest frustration during shows, especially the VF. This
night was no exception. As a 6′ 3″, 175 lb man, I’m by no means large,
but I am tall enough so that I get kicked in the face by a lot of crowd
surfers. This night was no exception.
I guess the only thing odd about this night was that my anger had
actually formed itself into rage upon a human. And, I liked it.
About 8 songs into the unusually long 1 hr and 50 min set, I received
what must have been my 4th kick to the head by a crowd surfer. I swore
then, to the girl next to me, as she was just as pissed off, that the
next surfer who came by would get decked. She laughed, I think more out
of the sight of me becoming violent than the threatening joke it was.
However, not five minutes later, this bastard kicks me in the mouth
where I had a bad cancer sore. That did it.
You see, when I go to a VF concert, there’s nothing that pisses me off
more than these three types of people
(and generally, they go hand-in-hand):
1) the people who came to see the opening band and could give a super
flying hippo s*** about the VF
2) the people who think they’re at a damn grateful dead (and I am damn
grateful) concert
3) the people who think they’re in a damn Ultimate Fighting Championship

Anyway, this f*** kicks my face, so I pull him down by his ankle, and
knock him in the face with my elbow. My elbow got all bloody. He quit
doing it. We never got messed with again.
I am in no way imploring violence, however, I think it is quite a
victory for a whimp such as I. Since you can’t talk sense into these
idiots, I think you have to join them on their intellectual plateau.

thanks again,
john iii
chicago, il

————————————————————————

Dear John iii …… There’s NO such way! Thanks for your interest.
G. V.F. 12/5/97
—————————
Maybe the cooler thing about that story is that afterwords, I went back
to that girl and her boyfriend’s apartment for a party. At 4 am the
following morning I wokeup on a couch at some house in another apartment
complex with a seminaked girl next to me. I got directions and found
myself at work 3 hours later, on time, but really disoriented.
Regardless, the entire night was (sadly?) out of character, but
nevertheless, it was a good time through and through.

john iii
DidacticCP

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RE: Interesting Stories
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Well, I never score at Violent Femmes shows I usually just get the crap
kicked out of me. But I do have an interesting story about the UPJ
show from a few months back. OK here we go: It was my second time
seeing the Femmes, both times having been at UPJ. I made sure to get
there early because the first time I had been way back on the floor and
couldn’t see anything. Not even the top of Guy’s head. It seemed
everyone at that show was 6′ tall expect for me.
So I made sure that I would be right up front for this show. My friends
and I got there early bought our T-shirts and went down on the floor. I
was right up front on the right side of the stage where Brian would be
in about an hour and a half. Fast forward through the opening band
because they sucked, but the guitar player did have nipple rings so
that kind of made up for it.
Anyway the Femmes come out, Brian and Gordon were smoking cigars of
course, and the show begins. Next thing I know some drunk guy comes
barreling through the crowd and manages to kick everyone to my right out
of the way to make room for him and his girlfriend. Nothing like a
foul frat boy with a tongue piercing and his equally foul girlfriend to
brighten your concert going experience. Where there had been peace and
serenity 5 seconds earlier there was now mayhem. Caused by this one guy
who was trying to crush my windpipe with his elbow and succeeding.
Well, after losing and reclaiming my spot several times I started
bitching at the security guard who claimed that there was nothing he
could do because there were 300 people moshing behind this drunken
idiot. Funny thing was there were No Moshing signs everywhere so I
guess someone wasn’t doing there job.
Anyway four songs into the set and this guy and I are basically going
to war, when over the P.A. I here a voice boom: “Hey You!!!” I looked
up and Brian Ritchie was pointing at the drunk guy who had just given
me quite a nice shot to the ribs. “Yeah, you. Do you go to this
school?” Drunk guy replies with a “WOOOOOOO” “Well that just proves
that any idiot can get into this school” And for some reason the entire
student body at UPJ decides to applaud this remark. I guess they agree.
Brian goes on to give this big speech about how some people think it’s
cool to be drunk in public but after some many years they are just a
big waste of flesh and still drunk. “If he causes anymore problems get
him out of here.” At this point I was blowing Brian kisses and
screaming “I Love this man!” because it’s the first time anyone has
actually stood up for me when it comes to drunken assholes. I guess
most people figure that since I’m 5’3″ and weigh about 119 – 123 I’m
some kind of power house. Can’t you tell. So anyway to make this long
story short the guy AND his girlfriend get thrown out and I was able to
enjoy the rest of the show. Here’s the cool part I got to meet and
thank Brian after the show.
ME: “I just wanted to thank you for getting that drunk asshole off me.”
BRAIN: “No problem I don’t approve of that kind of behavior.”
Cool!! I got him to sign my T-shirt than took off because at this point
I was pretty dehydrated and needed liquid. Not to mention pretty
bruised up. I didn’t feel like waiting for Gordon to show up and Guy
popped in and out, but I already told you what happened there.
So that was the story I was going to tell people when I met them. I
still am because there are some other details I left out to make the
story shorter.

Kathryn
Kittricken

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