Violent Femmes

I'd only just seen the Violent Femmes a few days prior at the Big Day Out. So when I get confirmation that I am supposed to be at The Corner on Thursday night to review them, I wasn't jumping for joy. I figured I could probably write a review without even attending the show. What is going to be different? It's the Violent Femmes man, of course their own shows will be the same as their festival shows, but just go on a little bit longer, right?

Um, no. Not at all actually. My apologies to Victor, Brian and Gordie for making that assumption. I feel really bad about it, because this show was great and a completely different experience to the BDO show.

Whilst the Big Day Out show made me smile and sing along with the crowd and feel that warm festival vibe that a band like the Femmes will provide, the Corner Hotel show allowed them to prove why it is that after all these years they are still going, and why they are still selling out shows.

With a few guest musicians, including Spencer P Jones, the Violent Femmes sound was rich and full as they churned through the back catalogue of alt-pop songs. My favourites were 'Gimme The Car' and their fantastic cover of 'Children of the Revolution'. Crowd favourites seemed to be the more upbeat tunes like 'Prove My Love', 'Ugly', 'Held her in my Arms', 'American Music' and of course 'Blister In The Sun'.
If you think about how many times they must have played that darn 'Blister In The Sun' song in the last twenty-odd years, it made me really happy to see that they are still prepared to play it, play it well and play it with a really good natured, crowd involving attitude, even if it is one of the few Femmes songs I just won't listen to at home anymore.

All in all, I enjoyed myself immensely and that enjoyment was heightened by seeing a band who were obviously having a lot of fun still playing with each other after all these years.

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