Violent Femmes- Hallowed Ground Live 40 Years Ago- May 16, 1984

 

 Tonight, the Violent Femmes are bringing, "An Evening With Violent Femmes" tour to Winnipeg to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the band's second album, Hallowed Ground. The setlist will consist of performing both the self-titled debut album (released 41 years ago) and Hallowed Ground back to back in it's entirety. Due to unfortunately, being out of town and living on a low budget (see lyrics from the Kinks song), I turned down the opportunity to buy tickets and though I'm not kicking myself in regret, it would have been a cool concert. Yes, I'm being cheap, but to help me ease my sorrows, I had a listen to a show from (almost) 40 years ago to this date when the Femmes embarked on the original Hallowed Ground tour. The album was released on May 14th, 1984 and though I now consider the record one of their best, at the time I wasn't so sure. The debut album was so good and if you read my recent post about that album's 40th anniversary show, you know what an influence that album had on my life musically and it's affect on my listening preferences. Hallowed Ground had a dark, gothic sound to it and I questioned how religious this album was meant to be. At the time, I didn't like it and didn't buy the album (fear not, I taped it from a friend). Jesus Walking On The Water and It's Gonna Rain have a Sunday school vibe to it, which is interesting...but it has some intense slow burning barn-burners, Hallowed Ground and the eerily creepy, Country Death Song, along with Never Tell, which would have fit in perfectly on the first record. Some of the other tracks teeter on filler, but overall it's solid and worth a listen.

The show I'm posting I snagged from archive (org) and though the sound quality isn't the best, it's an energetic and entertaining show. It's taken from a multi-generation audience cassette recording which sounds pretty typical for the time, a bit trebly with crowd noise, but it has that authentic sound of "being there", which I sometimes enjoy more than clear, but flat sounding board recordings. The setlist is made up of songs from the first two albums (if you excel in math, Hallowed Ground was released 2 days earlier) and the highlight is the last song, Kiss Off with a Pipeline jam in the middle of the song! Thanks to Milocampo for contributing the concert to the archive! Hopefully someone will record the show in Winnipeg tonight (often I'm the only taper at local shows) and if so, I'll post it. (if you record it, let me know!)

Enjoy!

Please do NOT sell or profit from the recording!

Do NOT convert to lossy formats, except for personal use.

Please share!

 

VIOLENT FEMMES
Jockey Club 
Newport, KY.
May 16, 1984

HALLOWED GROUND tour

01. intro. - musical procession to stage
02. I AIN'T GONNA WAIT
03. PROVE MY LOVE
04. COUNTRY DEATH SONG
05. UGLY
06. HALLOWED GROUND
07. FAITH
08. CONFESSIONS
09. GONE DADDY GONE
10. GIMMIE THE CAR
11. PROMISE
12. IT'S GONNA RAIN
13. BLACK GIRLS
14. ADD IT UP
15. BLISTER IN THE SUN (encore)
16. KISS OFF w/ PIPELINE jam!!! (encore)
17. outro - musical procession leaving stage
- end of show-

source: 4th gen audience cassette
Taper: ROD/unknown equipment
4th gen aud. cassette>wav>flac(8)
transferred & uploaded by: MILOCAMPO

GORDON GANO: guitar/vocals
BRIAN RITCHIE: bass/vocals
VICTOR DeLORENZO: drums/vocals
with
THE HORNS OF DILEMMA:
STEVE MacKAY: saxaphones
SIGMUND SNOPEK III: various instruments

runtime:80:17

note: very end of track 10 is at beginning of track 11 due to tape flip. 

VIOLENT FEMMES- 1984-05-16, Jockey Club, FLAC. rar