Review: The Violent Femmes – Twilight At Taronga Series (4 March 2016)
The guitar hook that opens ‘Blister In The Sun’ was the sound of The Violent Femmes making a statement. Couples and groups of friends were cosy on their folding chairs and blankets enjoying Sydney harbour sunset, but the band said enough of that beauty.
That beat and those lyrics had everyone on their feet. Dancing and screaming to the heavens with each and every word was what was in play for tonight and the call of The Femmes was answered immediately.
Brian Ritchie has retained his long flowing locks and his presence and stage managing of the band was simple and direct. His amazing riffing on the bass was solid and mesmerising from the start and we were to get more of that as the night moved along. He showed he was a force of nature and that the bars of the zoo would not hold him back.
Hearing the 53 year old Gano spit out the lyrics he wrote as a teenager made for an interesting dichotomy. All that angst coming out of someone who has moved on from that stage of his life, was fabulous to hear and experience. ‘Kiss Off’, ‘Please Do Not Go’, ‘Add It Up’, and ‘Confessions’ from their debut came at us like they were fired from a machine gun. The intro to ‘Add It Up’ showed the Taronga Zoo choir in full voice and true fandom.
Blaise Garza is still blowing saxophone with the band as he has done since he was about 15. As a matter of fact at the age of 27, he still looks like he’s only just reached his twenties. John Sparrow, who has recently replaced Brian Viglione (of The Dresden Dolls) on drums and charcoal grill and the like kept up with Richie to keep the rhythm moving forward at a pace that was mostly fast and rapid fire as previously mentioned.
Gano delivered his lyrics with clarity and an energy that belied his demeanour. He was never one to move that much around the stage and he remained in front of his mic and gave it his all. The mostly middle aged throng were in their element. Dancing was unbridled and although the crowd was under the stars, they could have been in a pub 30 odd years ago the way people tossed their bones around.
We Can Do Anything is the most recent release by The Violent Femmes (released the day of this gig as matter of fact) and we did get a taste of it, but the 90 minutes people came for were the songs that were the soundtrack of a portion of their life.
‘Gone Daddy Gone’, with Ritchie joining in with this xylophonic craziness, has not lost a thing over the years. Gano broke out his banjo during the night for a foray into bluegrass tinged Femmes and his fiddle was delightful on ‘Jesus Walking On The Water’.
‘Good Feeling’ was probably the most laid back moment of the evening and Gano’s delivery was magical. The similarity to an old Buffalo Springfield song, ‘Out Of My Mind’, seemed very apparent tonight and it’s something to think about if you play them back to back. It was delightful to hear outdoors on a stunning Sydney early autumn evening.
Garza went wild on saxophone while the band bashed out ‘Black Girls’ from the 1984 release Hallowed Ground. The dancing frenzy continued and the rock and roll motion of this song was almost too much for the fans to take in.
There was one more bit of classic Gano and Ritchie magic that everyone knew was coming up. ‘I Held Her In My Arm’ took everyone to the encore and the massive chorus of a couple of thousand people singing along probably scared more than a few of the non-nocturnal animals.
With a tight schedule at the Zoo to protect the inhabitants, the band did not leave the stage. A new song ‘Memory’ was doled out and then ‘American Music’ closed the place down.
Simply that is what we got tonight, some classic American punk styled music. The years have been good to the music and to the founding members of this beloved band. If they can feed off the energy of their fans and have the desire to play these old songs and a fire in their belly to create some more, we might have them around for a bit more classic old USA type music.
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