AMERICAN MUSIC – October 12, 2003
THE VIOLENT FEMMES Email List
List archive online at http://www.oocities.com/violentfemmeslist
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TOUR DATES (*=New Dates)
Thursday 10/30/03 Spokane WA Spokane Center
Friday 10/31/03 Boise ID Big Easy Concert House
Saturday 11/01/03 Missoula MT Wilma Theater
Friday 11/07/03 Indiana PA Indiana University of Pennsylvania PRIVATE Show – Students ONLY
Saturday 11/8/03 Pittsburgh PA Metropol Theater http://www.emstage.com/
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IN THIS ISSUE:
Violent Femmes on UPN’s ROCK ME BABY!!!
Recent Events
West Coast Swing
RE: Oracle Event
KROQ Inland Invasion
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Move over Sabrina … here comes VF on UPN’s Rock Me Baby!
I’ve been told that this episode will make the Sabrina episode look
like a Samuel Beckett play! Hmmm…
Tune in to UPN, Tuesday, October 14, 9PM ET/PT
You can get a video preview here (you need RealPlayer)
http://www.upn.com/shows/rock_me_baby/
PS – The Femmes perform their rendition of the classic Cash tune “Ring of Fire”
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Recent Events
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Sorry for the delay in reporting, but I unfortunately have a life that
keeps getting in the way of my fun.
I’ve noticed that no one has written about any of the more recent
shows, so I thought I would give a brief recap.
I took my family (kids first show) to see the femmes for the 91x 20th
Anniversary Show. It was such a low key event, I was able to walk right
over to the side of the back stage area and meet the band. Gordon was
still limping at the time and using a cane. Brian said hello to my
kids and Victor was the most talkative of the three. It was my first
chance to talk with them in about 12 years, so it was great just to spend a few brief minutes and thank them for the years of enjoyment.
The show was similar to the shows of last year focusing mostly on the
first three albums, but like Brian said in his email correspondence to
the group, the have added a couple of newer songs. They played All I
Want and Freak Magnet. I was happy to see them play those newer songs
and I got some great pictures of the band. My kids (age 3 & 5) know a
lot of the words to the songs from repeated hearings (please no one call
the authorities). It was funny to see a group of 20 year old kids
looking at my wife with our three year old on her shoulders singing along to “Look Like That”. They asked her if she was a band members wife, because there was no way a little guy like that could no the words to songs.
We saw the Femmes again a few weeks later at the KROQ 25th Anniversary
Flashback to the Future show and were please to find our seats in the
audience right in front of Gordon. I had the opportunity to chat with
him briefly, but did not have the nerve to ask him to please record some
new music with the original lineup.
The coolest thing was that he just hung out with the crowd, posing for
pictures and whatnot. He also stayed and checked out the other bands
that played even after their brief set that included AM, Prove My Love,
Out the Window, BITS, Gimme the Car, Kiss Off, Gone Daddy Gone and Add
it Up, Gordon, his lady friend and their little group came back out and
rocked to Echo and the Bunnymen, Hot, Hot Heat, Duran Duran and The
Cure. Really just a cool day to be able to hang so close to one of your
musical heros. I was hoping that they might throw a cover song at the crowd since it was kinda a nostalgia show except for the handful of new bands that played.
Thanks again to Deanna (I think it was you) who set up the Q & A with
Brian. That was outstanding and I hope that we might be able to do that
again in the future. Brian was such a stud for jumping in there and
really taking the time to thoughtfully answer all those questions. It
was appreciated by the handful of fans left out there.
Greg
SCPGAMEDIA
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West Coast Shows
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My husband and I had an opportunity to visit California the other week and that
meant that I got the opportunity to experience 4 fantastic Femmes shows in
4 days. It was Femmes overload and I loved it. The Mystic Theater in Petaluma
is well named. There was this distinctly ’40’s-’50’s feel to the place. It had a wide
open stage, a large floor area in front of the stage, seats and tables in the back
and a really cool balcony. The not-sold-out, but decent sized crowd was
composed of 20’s, 30’s and a few 40 something folks. I overheard the people
around me commenting on what a nostalgic thing it was to see the Femmes
play again. They talked about how the Femmes were all that they listened to
in college and there was real affection for them when they took to the stage..
I was happy to hear them play Freak Magnet and Girl Trouble along with their
regular set and Gordon had the crown singing along at the top of their lungs
to Johnny Cash’s Ring Of Fire. I was thinking how interesting it was that
everyone knew that song well enough to sing along. I must say, that
musically, the night belonged to Brian Ritchie. His solos were intense,
passionate and definitely crowd favorites. Every time he stepped up to
the front of the stage, the crowd reaction was pure excitement.. There
was a great deal of playfulness on stage that night. Victor was all over
the stage and they all shared some playful banter.
The two shows at the Great American Music Hall were my favorites.
First of all, the place is just so opulent and colorful. I read somewhere
that is used to be a brothel. The walls and ceiling were this maroonish
scarlet color and very intricately textured. The lighting was darkish
and when I walked around the place I was amazed to see how big it
was. It had a huge wrap around balcony with railing space and then
rows of tables and chairs beyond the railings. The floor area seemed
to go on forever with lots of great little nooks and crannies. The first
night it was crowded, the second night , packed. Lots of returnees
from the first night. And what an enthusiastic crowd!
I should mention here that for all the shows, the Femmes had
perhaps the most impressive HOD section I’ve ever seen. They told
me later it featured some people who have played in HOD for the past
20 years. Steve McCay on tenor sax was by far the most colorful member
of the group and he was totally enjoying himself at each show. He looked
so happy to be there and was having the time of his life. Besides playing
with HOD he also sat in for a few other songs and. he was joined by Drake
Scott on trumpet for I Held Her In MY Arms. The combination of sax and
trumpet on that fantastic song was breathtaking. Brian introduced him
by saying that he used to say, “Steve McCay, formerly of the Stooges.
But since the Stooges are reunited, he’s Steve McCay of the Stooges”
He was so comfortable up there. Besides Steve and Drake, HOD
consisted of Jerry Harrison on xylophone, Hani Naser on arabic
percussion (what a great percussionist!), Roger Rocha on guitar,
Ken LaCosse on shakuhachi, Jared Olman on alto sax and Darren
Brown on trumpet. Johnny Biz, the opener for all 4 shows played
accordion with HOD. He was a pleasant, young, funny singer
songwriter who had such a good onstage demeanor. And on violin
was this wonderful young woman named Yoon Ki Chai. One of my
favorite Femmes moments at every show is Brian’s solo on Good
Feelings. For these shows, Yoon Ki played the solo on violin and the
audience was not disappointed. She was so good. She also played the
violin solo on Jesus Walking On The Water. The Femmes seemed so
happy to be playing with people they know, like and admire. There was
such a playful camaraderie on the stage. When Brian was introducing
the band during Black Girls, and he got to introducing Gordon, instead
of Gordon taking a bow it was this smiling Asian man with Gordon’s
guitar who took a bow instead. Later, Gordon said that for a while there,
he felt like an Asian man, but that it was probably just his imagination.
The Santa Cruz show was at the Catalyst, which is kind of rough, factory
like place with a wrap-around balcony. They played their regular songs
with the audience singing and dancing along. By the time the Femmes
and all of the Horns of Dilemma got on stage it was like one big jamfest.
The sound was incredible and the audience loved them. One guy, who
was standing next to me told me it was one of the best shows he’d ever
seen there. I had such a great time but I had to get back to the East
Coast by Saturday so I had to miss the Saturday show in Devore. Four
Days in SanFrancisco, 4 fantastic Femmes shows. I can’t wait to do it
again.
Marylee
Rubaiyat
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Website
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Hello,
I once submitted an email asking you if you would like to get
together and possibly get this website updated. I have a violent
femmes site I did for a school project and was wondering if
there were some way we can use both of our existing sites to
create something more up to date. I am a big fan of the band
and have been for some time. I just want to help.
Thanks,
Chris Partida
www.chrispartida.com
to get an idea of my version of your site, click the link below:
http://www.chrispartida.com/violent%20femmes/index.htm
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RE: Oracle Event
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Hey! I went to that Oracle show too! The Femmes were great and the party
was insanity!
Petey
pideara
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KROQ Inland Invasion
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Hello…I’m assuming that this e-mail address is where I can request to be added to the Violent Femmes mailing list (current news, updated tour dates, etc.)??? Hopefully I guessed right! I would also like to be able to e-mail the members with some thoughts (and mostly gratitude) on their music, recently attended concert, and on and on and on and on…..if I e-mail them here, will they see it? Any info, help, or whatever you can provide me will be greatly appreciated…later skater
R/
Cherie
GrlStarInLove
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