Violent Femmes Turn Back the Clock, Twice

Milwaukee Legends perform their first two albums live at Riverside Theater

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For a group whose legend begins with busking on Milwaukee streetcorners and in doorways, Violent Femmes stage Sunday night at the Riverside Theater resembled an eclectic music store’s garage sale.

This evening was the second of two nights the Femmes would perform their debut album and its follow up Hallowed Ground, released in 1983 and ’84.

Original members Brian Ritchie and Gordon Gano were abetted by drummer John Sparrow (formerly of Milwaukee’s The Danglers) who replaced original drummer Victor DeLorenzo; multi-instrumentalist Blaise Garza (contrabass saxophone, auto harp) and Mike Kasprzak (Cactus Brothers) on cajon.

Hallowed Ground

Judging from the appearance of the audience, some of these folks were lucky enough to catch the Femmes in the period after the first album was released and the group was already playing songs slated for the follow-up live. Those incendiary shows found the trio moving from the angst-riddled debut into the wildly experimental sounds and religious imagery of Hallowed Ground.

Sunday evening the group wisely began the concert performing the sophomore album, with the band decked out in t-shirts displaying the album’s cover art by Mary Nohl. Leading with “Country Death Song” Gano plucked a banjo and Ritchie strapped on a striking Big Johnson acoustic bass—beginning an evening of bass workouts that moved from brisk walking lines to freakouts. Decades before Americana became a genre nodding to American music, the Femmes warped take on filicide and suicide was a musical version of Flannery O’Connor or William Faulkner. The band’s entry in the old, weird America sweepstakes still holds up.

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“I Hear the Rain” featured the group’s acapella vocals, “Jesus Walking on the Water” included five-part harmonies and included Gano on fiddle and the first of several appearances by Jeff Hamilton (The Probers) on mandolin. Aside from being a longtime member of the Femmes inner circle on tours, Hamilton has also worked as producer for the band.

With “I Know It's True but I'm Sorry To Say” fans got a taste of the influence of the quiet sound the Velvet Underground, set off by a vibraphone part by Garza.

By the time the group launched into “Sweet Misery Blues,” it was boasting a throwback New Orleans sound with Garza on pocket trumpet and Kasprzak on soprano trombone. The arrangement turned out to be a warmup for “Black Girls” and the Horns of Dilemma. The horn section which varies from city to city included a history of local music with players Sigmund Snopek III, Dale Kaminsi (Liquid Pink), Brian Miller (Paw Paw Lawton and His Jigsaw Band), Silas Ritchie, as well as Hamilton, Garza and Kasprzak breaking into a jam that would make Sun Ra smile before Sparrow brought things back to earth with a drum solo that included his Weber grill.

The band would follow with “It’s Gonna Rain” ending with the audience singing along and the band unplugging and exiting the stage.

Blister

After a short break the band returned with Gano sporting a silk robe (perhaps a nod to his earliest stage wear of a bathrobe) and Ritchie stabbing out the familiar riff as the group launched into “Blister in the Sun.”

For the rest of the concert the audience would largely remain on its feet, accompanying Gano’s angst-ripened, timeless lyrics that suggest Holden Caulfield as a dissatisfied punk rocker.

It is a rare event when a group connects with an audience this fervently—transporting them back four decades.

“Please Do Not Go” allowed for a reggae framework; “Confession” saw the return of the manic horn section, this time with Ritchie on conch shell. He would move to the spotlight with his marimba solo on “Gone Daddy Gone.”

Similar to the first set, Gano recalled the sublime mood of the Velvet Underground on “Good Feeling,” with his violin and Garza’s vibraphone textures painting the gauzy haze of the of New York band.

A two-song encore closed with “American Music” and Ritchie ended the evening saying this was the last show of the year for the Femmes.