Given that the Violent Femmes were the second act on a three-act bill that started, at 7 p.m., with Men at Work’s Colin Hay, it never occurred to me that Milwaukee’s alternative legends would take the Sunset Cove Amphitheater stage at any time before 8. But as Gordon Gano, Brian Ritchie and Brian Viglione began their set at the ungodly hour of 7:30 this past Friday, your humble and obedient servant was glacially wending through the purgatorial two-lane crawl of South County Regional Park, unfashionably late and soon-to-be-envious of the lucky few who showed up early.
(photos by Ron Elkman)
When I arrived, the group had just finished playing “Love Love Love Love Love,” the single from its new EP “Happy New Year,” a guileless winner offering boundless evidence that the Violent Femmes are not content to tour as a nostalgia act.
But make no mistake: The overall set was appreciatively vintage, drawing heavily from the Femmes’ first two seminal albums, released in 1983 and 1984. Carrying a banjo and donning a so-unhip-it’s-hip safari hat to shield the setting sun, Gano confessed that he “grew up listening to a lot of country music” before unleashing the Femmes’ version of a western toe-tapper, the demented backwoods groove of “Country Death Song”—an electrifying surprise, given that it hasn’t turned up on recent set lists.
The classics kept coming, at a dancier clip than their album versions; near the stage, as the Femmes performed the uncharacteristically joyful “Jesus Walking on the Water,” couples actually do-see-doed. There was even more movement during “American Music,” performed with an alternately deadpan wit and a patriotic fury.
For such a short set, the Femmes unveiled a deep trove of instrumental color, not limited to mandolin, harmonica, xylophone (What would “Gone Daddy Gone” be without it?) and even the giant contrabass sax. They punctuated “Black Girls” with a mini, dueling-percussion symphony, which included Viglione’s traditional drum kit as well as John Sparrow’s solo on what appeared to be a cajon box; this breather for Gano and Ritchie was our jazzy, post-rock gain.
The Femmes closed, as always, with “Add It Up,” the audience chanting along to the a cappella opening like inspired congregants at the Church of Gano. Judging by the chorus of “say it ain’t so” boos when Gano announced that it would be the Femmes’ last song of the evening—and by the thunderous applause that concluded each tune—I’m not the only one who showed up to a Barenaked Ladies show primarily to see the opening band. The energy at the amphitheater was electric and, frankly, unforgettable during this all-too-brief performance, and the crowd offered plenty of motivation for the Femmes to return for a future headlining tour.
Following such a performance, the Barenaked Ladies were, to put it charitably, anticlimactic. Garrulous frontman Ed Robertson was filled with his usual banter, about everything from seeing the new Amy Winehouse documentary (at the Cinemark Palace theater, no less!) to falling off his bike in Milwaukee, to the fashion utilities of gingham. Mostly, he riffed (and rapped, naturally) on South Florida chestnuts that I think most of us are tired of hearing—alligators, the heat, the humidity, Boca’s unsavory nickname as “the mouth of the rat.” Yawn.
The music rarely exceeded the confines of the cute and diverting, and it could be downright boring at times. The group is obviously fond of its new album “Silverball,” but the songs went over like lead balloons, falling on this amphitheater crowd with unceremonious thuds.
Even the bigger, older numbers—“The Old Apartment,” “Brian Wilson”—failed to rouse the audience like even the more obscure Violent Femmes songs did. It said something that the biggest reaction during the first half of Barenaked Ladies’ set came not from the Canadian rockers’ own material; it was when Colin Hay joined BNL to perform his old Men at Work song, “Who Can it Be Now?”
Pulses lifted, finally, during Barenaked Ladies’ string of set-closing hits—“Pinch Me,” “Big Bang Theory Theme,” “One Week” and “If I had A Million Dollars,” in rapid succession—but it felt, to paraphrase another BNL tune, too little too late.
BNL has released some genuinely witty and clever songs in its more than 25 years in the industry; I love punchy, ironic narratives like “Sell Sell Sell,” “Bank Job,” “Box Set” and even “Another Postcard.” But with a set list composed of less-than-inspired new material, token singles and novelty covers, the show was hardly representative of BNL’s talents.
There’s an unspoken rule that any headlining comedian knows: Pick a funny opening act, but for god’s sake, don’t let him be funnier than you are. Barenaked Ladies broke it last night. By all means, if you’re seeing any of the remaining shows on this summer tour, don’t make my mistake: Show up really early!
Violent Femmes set list:
(I missed the first three songs, which undoubtedly included “Blister in the Sun” and “Kiss Off”)
Love Love Love Love Love
Country Death Song
Jesus Walking on the Water
American Music
Black Girls
Gone Daddy Gone
Add It Up
Barenaked Ladies set list:
Get Back Up
The Old Apartment
Odds Are
(freestyle rap)
Feelin’ Hot/Ole Ole
Gonna Walk
Toe to Toe
Brian Wilson
Narrow Streets
Who it Can it Be Now?
Piece of Cake
Passcode
Light Up My Room
(freestyle rap)
Did I Say That Out Loud?
Duct Tape Heart
Pinch Me
Big Bang Theory Theme
One Week
If I Had A Million Dollars
Barenaked Rap medley (included snippets of “The Only One,” “Shake it Off,” “Hey Ya,” “Uptown Funk” and “Take Me to Church”)
ENCORE
Drawing
Rock and Roll (Led Zeppelin)
