Music Review: Violent Femmes @ 9:30 Club

I used to drive on Hill Rd blasting this band. I remember signing "Please Dont Go" to Jessica Wolf. I remeber hearing the lyrics, "Why cant I get just one screw," and believeing that I just istened to a band that spoke to me. My mates and I headed down to the 930 Club. A great venue in a remerging part of town. I forget how much I love listening to live music. I'm not talking about those crazy stadium shows but the smaller venues. Out of curiousity whats the appropriate way to dance to the Violent Femmes?

A great show...I had heard rumors that every once and awhile the Violent Femmes dont put on a show. I was proven wrong tonight. From classics to lesser known tunes the Violent Femmes played to a mostly 30-40 year old crowd. I envisioned the concert was going to be more like a Blink Concert for some weird reason. You know more jumping around more energy from the audience but it was pretty subdued until a classic song was played. They ended on "Add It Up."

Some weird elements to the show: older crowd, some prolonged jams that made me belive i was listening to a Mikey Hart Drum solo or listneing to space at a Dead show in JFK. I was hoping more of the jams would flow naturally into other songs but they were jsut showing off some talent. VF had a banjo player with them and they played a Conk Shell and some other crazy items.

I was going to try and memorize the play list but I was to busy yeling the lyrics to American Music, Blister in the Sun, Kiss Off, Please Dont Go, Jesus Walking on Water and so on. I guess the only thing I didnt like was the audience a little sedate for my taste excpet of course my group who yelled out every lyric and constantly demanded "Add It Up." i mean during the up beat songs people sang but there was not motion in the audience it was weird.

Great show; unlike Browsermetrics show I didnt see that many pretty young things except the ladies in my group. As I am typig I realize that my ears are ringing.