11-19-97

AMERICAN MUSIC: THE VIOLENT FEMMES MAILING LIST
currently run by Pat. Wary

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The Quote Of The Day:

I wanna see you again
I feel the feeling since I don’t know when
I wanna see you again
So you can know you have a friend
-From I Wanna See You Again

send your VF quotes to

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WEB PAGES:

Official: http://www.vfemmes.com
Unofficial: http://www.gl.umbc.edu/~mmerry2/femmes.html
Guitar: http://www.bucknell.edu/~wtorres/violent_femmes/
TAB DIGEST:

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In Today’s Issue:

The New Orleans Show
The St. Pete Show
RE: The Univ of ILL Show
RE: The Univ of ILL Show
RE: Car Crash..The UMASS Show
VF on Haitus
RE: Brian NOT Gay
RE: Brian NOT Gay
RE: Moshing
RE: Moshing..Musical Tastes
Lobsters

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The New Orleans Show
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I caught the Femmes the other night at McCalister Auditorium in New
Orleans and it was by far one of the most energetic shows I’ve ever seen.
They didn’t even pause for a break when they got on stage for a half hour,
and I was about 3 feet from the stage. It was a really great show. I’ve
been following the Femmes for a few years now, and there were a few songs
they played (‘Bad’ and ‘I’ve Gone to Hell’) that I hadnt heard before so
I figure they’ll be on the upcoming album. Any news on the new album
(release date, title, etc)?

Grand Kaiser
Damn that cat he really blew, he knew what to do with his digeridue!

-Pat. Says: Rumor has it there will be a spring release. That’s
according to Guy. But then someone told me recently NEVER
to trust a drummer, so who knows :-/ Please don’t flame me,
percussionist subscribers.

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The St. Pete Show
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I was down in Florida during the 3 day stint the Violent Femmes had
there.

I only went to the St. Pete show because I was visiting a friend. The
St. Pete show was a 70 out of 100 as VF shows go. It was a very
interesting start as the guys played different instruments on the way to
the stage. Of particular interest was Gordon playing Tibetian prayer
bells. It’s good to know that my favorite band is keeping that
political and philosophical vein of their music alive.

I just realized that the set that they have been playing this tour (if
anyone else has seen them more than once this tour, they will know
what I mean) covers every album. That is nice. Gordon played I’m
Nothin’ with the band. I personally liked it better when he played it
solo and acoustic back in 94-95. He played it as an encore during that
tour.

I’m still wishing they would not play “Add it Up” as an encore. I wish
they would play Outside the Palace or something of that sort. I
actually heard another fan complain about the encore after the show.
Good to know that I am not alone.

There were a bunch of girls who were REALLY upset that I moved to the
front during the show…..what can you do. The crowd surfers sucked as
usual. I don’t want to beat a dead horse about that. But for $18.00
how FUCKIN’ much more artistic talent do you want on one stage?????????
Pay some attention MORONS!!! (Sermon Finished).

I doubt the Violent Femmes will show up much until NEW YEAR’S!!!!!! I
really hope they play the capital ballroom again. That show always
ranks 85 out of 100 in my book.

Your Friend in Vehemins Feminae
Jesse

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RE: The Univ of ILL Show
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I heard good things, and bad things. I, unfortunately, didn’t go. I
guess there was a “Dance MF Dance”- my friend whose brother dragged him
along seemed to think that was the highlight of the evening. Kids these
days, I tell ya.
—
Paul

—
“The fair damsel knoweth many ways to microwave fair pizza.”

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RE: The Univ of ILL Show
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Well, as this letter has previously pointed out, the Violent Femmes
played U of Illinois on November 13. The show had great aspects and poor
aspects. Overall, it was better than the 311 show taking place at the
same time as the Femmes concert.

The opened with a parade of brass down the middle aisle (right by my seat
in the second row)….up onto the stage. From there they opened with
their usual Didgeriblues….

Perhaps you could tell they were nearing the end of the tour and were
looking forward to Milwaukee. IF they were, ou could barely tell. Brian,
Gordon, and Guy all seemed to be enthusiastic about the show…

When they played Dahmer’s Dead I held up my usual homemade t-shirt with a
bloody broomstick on it. The crowd roared, and Brian made a comment
about the shirt.

ALthough I do not know the entire set list, I know it included such songs
as Never tell and a personal fave…..Your a Flamingo Baby…..

When Gone Daddy Gone was played Brian’s xylophone malfunctioned. The
amplifier would only play certain keys….So Brian improvised by playing
everything from a banjo to cymbals….Gordon made a joke that it was the
incredible disappearing xylophone and Guy sang an adlib song about it.

What could have been a real disaster was a whole lotta fun.

Overall, if you were not a die-hard Femmes fan you may not have enjoyed
the show. Brian and Gordon messed around on guitars a whole lot. True
Femmes fans could hear the undertones of songs while those who this letter
commonly refers to as “Fake Fans” would have thought it was alot of bogus
time wasted.

Following the show, I walked around back towards where the bus would be
and was alarmed to find no bus!

Turns out each person had a personal car, and there was a rental van from
Milwaukee for the equipment. We saw Gordon and waited for the appropriate
time to approach him… Some chick was all over him and was trying to ride
with him to Chicago…You could tell he was intrigued by her breasts, but
did not want her all over him like she was….After he shrugged her off we
(my friends and I) talked quickly to him and he “autographed” my homemade
t-shirt…He was being rushed to go…

But then we saw Brian, I wandered over and started conversation. He
signed autographs to the few fans around and I talked to him about music.
I asked him if he was going to play any solo concerts soon and he said he
was going to crash for the rest the year…He said there would be no New
Years Show in DC this year….If anyone knows Brian’s personality he
cares little about anything (his passions are his son, cigars, and music)
so when he commented that he recognizes me (a guy, not a girl with
breasts) I took that as a compliment.

Overall the night was one to treasure for a Violent Femmes fan like
myself. I had previously traveled 8 hours one way to see them and now
they finally came to my school.

Anyone that would give a poor review to this concert would not have
understood the mood the Violent Femmes were in. I believe the concert
to have been an excellent show….especially since this is on of the few
that jerkoffs were not throwing crap at the Femmes!

MBlack

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RE: Car Crash..The UMASS Show
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dale kaminsky was the only person that had to spend the night in the
hospital….he was fine for the umass show…he played his trombone just
fine and had a very long bass solo…it was just him on stage for a
while…

-Pat. Says: Dale was the only person involved in the accident. He got a
bump on his head but is otherwise fine. The UMASS show was
his last. He’s leaving the Horns of Dilemma; that’s why he
got his long solo. I’m sure I can speak for us all when I
say he’ll be missed. So folks, let’s all send psychic
godspeeds and good lucks his way.

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VF on Haitus
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did i mention that the femmes said that they were going to take the year
off??? (97) that is…so i guess that means no more shows..i’m glad i
drove back to catch it…

kyle
–

Girvan

E-Mail: Girvan Burnside

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RE: Brian NOT Gay
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Hey Matt, why couldn’t Brian be gay? Because he has a son? Honey,
haven’t you ever heard of people CHANGING their MINDS? I have several
gay friends who have kids. Maybe he was straight, had a kid, then
realized that wasn’t his bag. *shrug* I’m worried about this topic,
however, because I don’t want this lovely letter to become a politics
forum. Anyway, Brian is the shit, plain and simple. As are the rest of
the Femmes. And does anyone know how they got their name?

Claire

-Pat. Says: It’s more overcoming denial than changing your mind.
FACT: Brian is not gay, although happily he is a staunch
supporter of gay rights. Nuff said. Threads about the private
lives of the guys thrust me into paroxysms of embarrassment;
makes me feel like a peeping tom. I’m such a fucking prude 🙂

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RE: Moshing
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> But I WILL say that the VF have stated several times that they do not
> like moshing during their shows. They REALLY don’t like it.

Yeah, I noticed at the show in hollywood in september that when it got
to be rough (pretty much after the “she screamed as she fell but i never
heard her hit” part in the Country Death Song) they started to play
mellower songs like Good Feeling. I don’t know if it was just a
coincidence.

Nick

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RE: Moshing..Musical Tastes
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Well……Considering that I’m 6″7′ tall and weigh nearly 300 pounds
I dont really have a problem with moshing….
Everybody seems to avoid me!! Dunno why!!
Therefore….I have a really cool idea…..If any of you ever have a
problem with moshers again, get a REALLY big boyfriend OR
girlfriend to stand close to you when there is a mosh goin on.

PS: My fav bands are:
1. Therapy?
2. VF
3. Sisters of Mercy
4. Metallica
5. Guns ‘n Roses
6. Led Zeppelin
7. L7
8. Amersham…(South African)
9. Just Jinger…(also South African)
10. Iron Maiden…(yes…Iron Maiden…old but kickin’)

It might be a bit varied, but then who else except me cares!!??

There…..
I think this was the first time I’ve ever written to this mailing
list.
See ya
Johan “Barney” Richter

It takes a special breed of person to go out late
at night, drink heavily, dance violently, survive
with little sleep and go to work sane the next
morning.

–

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Lobsters
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One is not able to eat Lobster while it is still alive. When a lobster is
about to murdered, it releases toxins into it’s body. It poisons the
thing that is about to kill it. Therefore, they BOTH die….
pretty cool, huh?

-Pat. Says: Can’t you flip it over to put it to sleep or something?
Or is that alligators..or crocodiles..whatever. Maybe you
could chill them down till they get groggy. If it’s a male
lobster you could get a female lobster to have sex with it.
Sex always puts guys to sleep. I mean since it’s possible to
thrust them into boiling h2o and avoid any ill effects maybe
there’s another way too.

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