good feeling

last night i fulfilled a long-time fantasy. unfortunately i did not dress up as a french maid and play house with gael garcia bernal. but i did go and see the violent femmes play live. and it was awesome.

i was there with the beautiful fleur, the effervescent elo, and dangerous dave the canadian. and that made it even awesomer.

i'll admit that before last night i was slightly concerned about their ability to maintain their energy levels long enough to perform all my fave songs. they have been playing together for 25 years now and this is longer than i have been alive. and that means that they are old. like, really old.

you see they used to look like this:



and now they look like this:



see what i mean? old.

and there were indeed moments during the show when i thought they might have to take a respirator break or - the horror - finish the gig before performing 'add it up', 'kiss off' or 'gimme the car'.

but all turned out well in whiny-pop-rock land, and the femmes played a long and most magical show. from the endearing ex-punk dad-ness of vocalist gordon gano to the fuck-me-dead talent of bassist and musical virtuoso brian richie, it was a stellar performance from beginning to end. i even got a slight jizz-on when gano pulled out his violin during 'good feeling'. and boy did i want that moment to stay with me just a little longer.

and funny? by gosh were they funny. at one point they even had three bogans on stage with them who had won a competition to 'play with the violent femmes'. i don't know if said bogans anticipated that their instruments being a mini-accordian, mini-trumpet and recorder, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves nonetheless. and then after one song gordon told them to piss off. thank fuck.

this concert took me back to the summer of my very first boyfriend. constantly high on the attentions of an older man. petticoats and blue mascara. smoothies by day and vodka by night. parties on the beach. and nothing but the femmes, the pixies and nick cave in my stereo. bliss. oh, to be young again.

the show ended appropriately with the rousing glory of 'kiss off' and all i wanted to do was go home, put the femmes on, and dance around my room like a lovestruck teenager. but i went to the pub instead. cause i'm a big girl now.