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Violent Femmes, Live In Concert: Newport Folk 2016

Violent Femmes perform at the 2016 Newport Folk Festival.
Adam Kissick for NPR
Violent Femmes perform at the 2016 Newport Folk Festival.

Even though Violent Femmes played the Newport Folk Festival midway through a bright summer afternoon, the rock band's new song "I Could Be Anything" made the sunny field feel like a packed pub, where beer has made everyone friends, and revelers bellow out drinking songs with arms thrown across shoulders.

The off-again, on-again veterans from Milwaukee, who recently released their first studio album in 16 years, threaded their Newport Folk set with wildly diverse songs from their catalog of 30-plus years. Original members Gordon Gano and Brian Ritchie led the band's careening, playful ride through a smattering of polka, blues and acoustic tunes, with Gano shifting from snot-nosed punk to earnest believer on folk-gospel songs like "Jesus Walking On The Water." But (obviously) it was mainstay songs like the off-the-wall hit "Blister In The Sun," crowd favorite "Add It Up" and the xylophone-driven "Gone Daddy Gone" that bonded old and new fans together like a friendly round of lagers.

Set List

  • "Blister In The Sun"
  • "Kiss Off"
  • "Good For/At Nothing"
  • "Love Love Love Love Love"
  • "Country Death Song"
  • "I Could Be Anything"
  • "American Music"
  • "Jesus Walking On The Water"
  • "You Move Me"
  • "Memory"
  • "I Held Her In My Arms"
  • "Issues"
  • "Gone Daddy Gone"
  • "Add It Up"
  • Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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