Legendary Milwaukee folk punk group Violent Femmes made its annual stop in Chicago recently. This time, The Salt Shed hosted the band’s sold-out stop on its “Grasp and Reach For a Leg of Hope” tour. It was a fun night filled with classic tunes and good vibes.
Violent Femmes had this night all to its quirky own and made quite the entrance. Singer, guitar, banjo and violin player Gordon Gano entered on stage, but his bandmates marched in from the back of the crowd. Kicking the set off with “Olinguito” set the tone for a night of the band’s trademark whimsy. If you are not familiar with the word in that song title, Olinguito is the name of an Andes-dwelling member of the raccoon family.
Along with Gano, Violent Femmes is composed of bass player/multi-instrumentalist Brian Ritchie, John Sparrow on drums and percussion (a Weber grill being part of his setup) and Blaise Garza on the saxophone, including the gigantic contrabass saxophone, and flute.
While the audience appeared to skew older, people who have likely followed the band from the start, there were also quite a few younger fans in the crowd. I met two sets of fans in their 20s, one from Los Angeles and one from Texas with another thing in common. These fans have followed the band across the country, catching multiple shows on this tour. The thing with fans of the Violent Femmes is they truly are the very definition of diehard fans. And on this night, per usual they were heartily rewarded for this.
The rousing 22 tune set included the biggest hits, including “Blister in the Sun,” “Kiss Off,” “Gone Daddy Gone,” “I Held Her in My Arms,” “Add It Up,” “Please Do Not Go,” and their traditional closer, “American Music.” Every one of these tunes sounded like a full venue sing-along as the crowd amplified each and every lyric.
The set list also included “Prove My Love,” “Waiting for the Bus,” “Country Death Song,” “For All Those Who Love,” “Jesus Walking on the Water,” “Good Feeling,” and “Betrayal,” among others.
Violent Femmes shows are always reliably joyful experiences. This show was no exception. It was apparent per usual, that the band was having as big a blast as its fans in the crowd were having.
The show also undoubtedly kicked off a weekend of good vibes for many in the crowd. The day after this show, the second “No Kings” march took place worldwide. An estimated 7 million people peacefully marched to oppose the encroaching authoritarianism and to declare there shall be no kings ruling the United States. I imagine quite a few of those fans rocking out to the Violent Femmes also laced up their shoes and hit the streets the next day, joining fellow citizens to push back on the fascist policies presently being instituted by carried out by the Executive Branch and its allies in Congress.
I have been fortunate enough to document several Violent Femmes shows in recent years. Hoping this continues for years to come. If you have never had a chance to catch them, I recommend you do so at your very next opportunity.