Editor’s Note: Thirty-six years into their career, Violent Femmes know what the people want. Friday night (October 7) at the Orpheum Theatre in Boston, the veteran folk-punk band kicked off their 22-song set with an unrivaled one-two punch of “Blister In The Sun” and “Kiss Off”. It could be that Gordon Gano, Brian Ritchie, and company prefer to get their most familiar classics out of the way early, or it could be their correct understanding that it would only take the first few opening guitar chords of “Blister” to send the venue into a frenzy. Either way, the Orpheum crowd ate it up, and the cannonball intro set the tone for a Violent Femmes set that touched on all their classics (they concluded with “Add It Up”) and a few tracks off March’s We Can Do Anything. Ben Stas was on hand for Vanyaland to capture the Femmes in their natural habitat, and you can view his full gallery below.
