milo bloom

The wife and I went to the Cubby Bear in Wrigleyville last night to see The Violent Femmes. Though we're not "huge" fans, the tickets were only $15 a piece (minues TicketBastard fees of course), so we figured it a good value. And boyhowdy was it! After listening to a guy named Mer for an hour (acoustic guitar, Jack Jones wannabe, though a little harder, pretty good, but not an hour's worth good), they took the stage and just jumped right in. Very dynamic experience, very funny as they would chat and make jokes between songs whenever they would swich up instruments (which the bass player did a lot). They had a local harmonica player, Mattew Scholer (sp), and a good sized horn section backing them for several of the songs.

It was a very lively show, with the crowd really into it, though right afterward, one of the people right at the front was leaning over the security fence to get one of the guitar picks they threw out, and the security guard that was right there just lit into him, and had him thrown out, screaming and cussing up a storm. The wife and I took that as our cue to exit the big city and retreat to our safe suburban home.

uteotw

Sounds like a good time. I saw them probably 15 years ago and have been a fan for even longer. Was it a good mix of all their stuff? Good-size crowd?

cdollaz

Setlist?

milo bloom

To answer both of you, as I said, I'm not a big enough fan that I knew all their songs. I know they did the big ones, Gone Daddy Gone, Kiss off (final song), American Music, a couple of gospel ones, also the "daughter in the well" one, the real dark creepy one.
One of the blues songs was one they joked about wanting to do with Bonnie Raitt, and they claimed they only did it every 4-5 years, but might have been joking as they were very good humored throughout the show.

The capacity of the Cubby Bear is about 1200 and the show sold out. It was a good mix of ages. I'm 31 and there were a few that looked a little older, and a lot that looked younger. No seats, so standing room only, and there was a young lass behind me that kept bumping into my back while "moshing" (I believe that's what the young folks call it these days). And I could tell it was a young lass without even turning around

dhmac

I saw the Violent Femmes back about 1995 and they do put on a great live show. Before: I only liked a few of their songs. Afterwards: I was a fan.

SPiRAL

I wonder if they like the Gnarls Barkley version of, 'Gone Daddy Gone'. The music is pretty similar and the Cee-Lo does a decent-enough job on vocals.

mndtrp

Cool, glad you liked it. I've enjoyed the few songs I hear by them, and always thought it would be a good show. I'll see if they're coming near here sometime soon.

Thanks for the heads up that they're touring.