The Violent Femmes at the St James

By GRAHAM REID

Even without being cajoled or browbeaten by anthems and flag waving, we are loyal in this country. How else to explain our ongoing affection for Ben Harper - who has toured so often he might as well be a resident - and the Violent Femmes?

Few in the large and enthusiastic audience at the St James on Sunday could probably name the Femmes' last album (it was Freak Magnet of three years ago) but we love their acoustic-driven sing-along songs which, in the case of Blister in Sun and Gone Daddy Gone, now date from two decades ago.

So there we were with our hands in the air and, on a Rod Stewart kind of night, singing their songs back to them. It was hard not to: "Let me go on, like a blister in the sun ... "

After a confident set from Goldenhorse which lacked only in projection, then some cool Perry Como to set the mood, the Wisconsin three-piece came on to huge applause and, in my area anyway, a Mt Etna-sized blast of sweet smoke. This was an audience out to enjoy itself - and the Femmes didn't disappoint in a smoothly honed show which touched all the right points, allowed for a couple of slow songs around the midpoint so people could get a drink, and finished off with a tidy, 10-minute encore.

Their concessions to age appear to be shorter hair, drummer Victor DeLorenzo's bald spot "and two of them now wear glasses", as a very smiley guy near me observed. But their best songs remain timeless.

The appeal of the music is its simplicity. At times it has an almost country and western flavour, at others hard-wired folk or punk-pop. And Please Do Not Go has a light reggae shuffle. It's the kind of music you feel you not only can sing but could probably play. There's also a dark quality to the lyrics (Country Death Song) which appeals to us.

In many ways it was a show without surprises, except when they brought on a four-piece horn section (Horns of Dilemma) and I commented that you could imagine the Mutton Birds playing this particular song. When they introduced the Horns the Birds' Don McGlashan took a bow. And for a ripping Gone Daddy Gone Brian Ritchie took the vibes and let another (former) Kiwi, Bones Hillman of Midnight Oil, take over on bass.

With catchy songs, singer Gordon Gano's appealingly petulant whine and stand-up drummer DeLorenzo dancing around his kit, it was a night that lived up to expectation. You suspect if they came back in 10 years for another tour (their sixth?) we'd still come out in droves. We are loyal. Keep it that way.