Femmes Packed Show With Recorded History
The Violent Femmes and Harvey Danger Monday, Dec. 7, Spokane Opera House
The thing I love about the Violent Femmes is that they can sing a hymn praising Jesus one moment and in the very next song bemoan their lack of sexual activity.
Decidedly off-kilter, this is a band that bends and busts genre barriers with the dexterity of a fillet knife and the directness of a sledgehammer. They traipse and tromp through punk rock, Christian revival and honky tonk without ever bothering to ponder whether or not it’ll work.
And, therefore, it does.
For nearly two decades now, the Violent Femmes have crafted a music career based on the masterful songwriting of singer/guitarist Gordon Gano and the deft musicianship of bassist Brian Ritchie. And on Monday at the Opera House this trio finally gave Spokane an in-person tour of their music catalog.
It was the first time the Violent Femmes has performed in Spokane (where Gano’s parents now live and where he used to visit every summer). And the Femmes didn’t disappoint, jam-packing their two-hour show with songs that spanned their recorded rock history.
The Femmes dug deep into their early material, playing nearly every song off their still-relevant 1982 self-titled debut album and drawing heavily on their 1984 release “Hallowed Ground.”
Songs like “Blister In The Sun,” “Add It Up” and “American Music” thrilled the audience who sang and danced along. The mightily talented Ritchie wailed on a xylophone for “Gone Daddy Gone.” He broke out a flute and a horn for “Black Girls” and he let loose some amazing number of big bass solos throughout the show.
Drummer Guy Hoffman (who replaced original Femmes drummer Victor DeLorenzo in 1993) stood as he played through the show on a mere three-piece drum set. But, as they say, size doesn’t matter because Hoffman decorated their songs always with just the right flair of percussion.
And then there was Gano, who has a way of slicing open the human soul and laying out all its carefully repressed dark corners - from sexual demons to spiritual ones.
It is his wavering, amped voice that lends songs like “Never Tell” and “Kiss Off” an undercurrent of jittering lunacy - a touch of the seething psychotic. It gives him the ability to wail just about any line and make it seem somehow insightful - from the poignant to the absurd (“I told you once, I told you twice/Japanese eat lots of rice.” Huh?)
During “Country Death Song” a red spotlight bathed the singer. His cracked vocals littering the skin with goosebumps as he sang “It was at that time, I swear I lost my mind/ I started making plans to kill my own kind.”
That song, in its spare arrangements and acoustic bent, is a perfect example of how the Femmes have foregone rock and roll bombast in favor of restraint, allowing the songs themselves to shine through.
And in the end, the Femmes possess that intangible something, that can’t-quite-put-your-finger-on-it flair, that pulls all the pieces together, fills the spaces in between and makes their music something great rather than something simply good.
Seattle’s foursome Harvey Danger did a nice job opening the show. These boys have the melodic sensibilities to suit the often-bland radio interests - and yet they’ve managed to retain an intelligent edge that still makes them interesting. Their radio song “Flagpole Sitta” got the biggest hurrah from the audience although “Carlotta Valdez” and “Private Helicopter” - from their album “Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone” - were standouts as well.
Fronted by nerd extraordinare Sean Nelson, these guys also win points for forgoing rock star imagery for an endearing geekiness. And while Harvey Danger still seems to have a club-sized persona, if the Opera House shoes seem a bit too big now, I bet they grow into them.