Violent Femmes w/ Phoebe Bridgers
The Showbox, Seattle, WA
05.14.16
Thirty-five years of acoustic punk later, and Violent Femmes haven’t lost their ramshackle draw. Touring in support of We Can Do Anything, their first full-length release after a 15 year hiatus, the band brought a sold out crowd to Seattle’s venerable Showbox theatre for a casual, 21+ affair full of 40-somethings reliving and rejoicing.
Opener Phoebe Bridgers is a singer songwriter on an acoustic guitar. On the third song she goes electric, bringing up her friend to play bass. And on the next, she brings out a drummer who has a very minimal kit on the stage. Her light, easy going voice carried well over the crowd, despite them drinking and talking over her set.
But then VF took the stage, a disco ball in full effect overhead. Everything from a charcoal grill drum and a wheeled-in bass sax to a xylophone and mandolin made appearances on the stage. The band opened with early hit “Blister in the Sun,” followed by “Kiss Off,” and the tightly-packed crowd went wild singing along.
The band brought up a local storyteller to help with a song, and he read into the microphone as they played quietly but chaotically in the background. The crowd was having fun, singing along to all the hits and then some. With his giant acoustic bass guitar, Brian Ritchie would come up the edge of the stage and jam to the front row, while singer / guitarist Gordon Gano stuck close to the mic.
At one point, Gano switched to strumming a fiddle, and “Love Love Love Love Love” featured plenty of solos, first Ritchie, then a mandolin in the back, then finally the fiddle. Gano poked fun of a guy in the front row recording the set, saying “in case you missed that, this guy has it all recorded and will be putting it up on YouTube. You can find him there by his username ‘front row guy’.” The brought out their “Horns of Dilemma” section and everyone got an introduction. One guy played a mini trombone.
They closed the set with “Add It Up,” with the entire crowd dancing and singing along, stomping and cheering for an encore. They obliged with “Memory” followed by “American Music” and then stuck around after the show to sign some merch for the enthusiastic fans.
Review by Stephanie Dore
Photos by Alex Crick
Violent Femmes
Phoebe Bridgers
