In Concert: Violent Femmes

M and I don't make it to many concerts anymore. First, we don't like crowds. Second, we really, really don't like crowds.

But the student union brought in that old punk band Violent Femmes the other day for a free concert on the Union lawn. The last time I had an opportunity to see them was around 1988, when they came to town (with Indigo Girls, of all groups). I didn't really want to let the opportunity go by, though I was scared of a Bob Dylan (circa 1988) experience—music that bore no resemblance to what I knew and loved.

They were, in short, awesome. I must confess I've only ever really listened to their first album, which I (like many people) can recite from heart. But after the show, I'm very inclined to go check out the other 20 years worth of music they've been producing.

Many very young people there, which was great to see, and it was packed. No longer the twenty some-odd year old kids from 1982, these forty-plus veterans jammed with the best of them. They played just about everything off their first album, along with many other tunes I didn't know but really enjoyed.

Hard to believe that album came out 23 years ago. Where have all the flowers gone?