No one can touch The Violent Femmes and there is nobody else whom would have dared to blend not just the standard blues, folk or country, but down-the-line gospel and bluegrass into an alternative punk band.  You can’t fuck with The Violent Femmes.  You cannot fuck with this band…especially on lead singer Gordan Gano’s birthday (June 7th, whom he shares with Prince). In fact, it being the lead singer’s birthday, it was artist's choice to close out the show during the encore, with Gano reciting poet Mark Stand's “Keeping Things Whole.” Celebrating four decades of music with a multi-generational, multi-ethnic crowd at Berkeley’s own UC Theater, The Femmes covered all their singles and fan-favorite hits, including “Add It Up”, “Kiss Off”, “Blister In The Sun”, “Gone Daddy Gone”, “American Music”, “I Held Her In My Arms”, “Gimme The Car”, “Jesus Walking On The Water”, “Waiting For The Bus”, “Country Death Song” and “Prove My Love”, along with a smattering of new songs from their 2019 album Hotel Last Resort.  It was a perfect mix of loving and loathing, sex and salvation, punk and passion for these veteran on-again-off-again rockers.  Joined by original founder Brian Ritchie on an oversized acoustic bass guitar, xylophone, conch shell and shakuhachi (a Japanese bamboo flute), along with newer members John Sparrow (on drum brush/snare drum and a literal black charcoal grill), Blaise Garza (on both a contrabass and baritone saxophone) and “Mike” (on trumpet and box drum), it was rock done right as they strutted their stuff.

Opening the show was L.A.’s female rock duo Deap Valley (singer-guitarist Lindsey Troy and drummer-vocalist Julie Edwards), whom rumble and tumble with Muddy Waters-esque guitar fuzz and Bonham-esque drum licks, over songs that could have been written by Jack White, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Deerhoof collaboratively.  They throb, they pulse, and they rock so hard that during their set, Troy even snapped a guitar string mid-song. Their 2021 album Marriage features collaborations with Peaches, Jennie Bee (of Eagles Of Death Metal), Jamie Hince (of The Kills), and Jenny Lee Lindberg (of Warpaint), and songs like “Look Away”, “Smile More” and “Royal Jelly” thread the needle of being both raucous and classic rock, while also giving voice to a new more marginalized and feminist-minded audience.  If you haven’t already, please check out their latest album, along with their previous project Deap Lips, a collaborative album with The Flaming Lips.