Violent Femmes
Live @ Estragon (BO) 01.06.2006

THE REVIEW

“We are happy because it’s been ten years since we last came to Italy.”

This sentence from Brian Ritchie, said halfway through the concert, is enough to summarize the spirit of the evening. Three middle-aged men still happy to play excellent American music. Yet at the beginning, when a retired surfer, a pizza delivery guy, and a perpetual student took to the stage, I was afraid: they looked exactly as I imagined, older and chubbier, but luckily the first song dispelled any doubt: the energy is still the same as twenty years ago.

Gordon Gano still has that sharp and melancholic voice and doesn’t exactly have the frontman aura; he seems calmer compared to the other two. Victor De Lorenzo placed himself with the drums right at the center of the stage and seems to enjoy improvising little acts with the audience below the most. Brian Ritchie is the polymorphic multi-instrumentalist of the group and perhaps the most technically gifted; he alternates his glorious mariachi bass with various instruments including, I believe, a Tonkita broom.

Outside at Parco Nord, there is the amusement park, but the real party is in here; the selected tracks mostly come from the first two albums, and being a celebratory tour, it couldn’t be otherwise (I’d like to know who among those present bought “Why Do Birds Sing?”).

It's rare to see such a diverse audience, ranging from their twenties to forties, so well-prepared on all the pieces, digesting both bluegrass and more rock tracks.

Before the final goodbyes, the trio treats us to a song that, from what I gathered, they hadn't performed in years and perhaps won’t again, a song sung in Italian titled “La Follia” a skewed portrait in the moment to close this cold late spring evening.