“We think we can entertain any audience, absolutely.” Violent Femmes bassist Brian Ritchie sits with Rolling Stone AU/NZ at Melbourne’s Flemington Racecourse, a few hours before the US alternative rock band would take to the main stage at Good Things 2024.
Sure, there is an element of nostalgia that permeates through a Violent Femmes set, but as the crowds proved across the three-date festival run this summer, the love for this band is as rich as ever.
Bringing dynamic singalong moments together with striking musicianship that has only become redefined across recent years of being back in the touring market, Violent Femmes really are that type of band who are, as Ritchie pointed out, ready for any type of crowd or live event format.
For Ritchie, who himself has had experience in curating an unique festival experience for many years (he was at the helm of Tasmania’s MONA FOMA from 2009 until 2024), being invited to perform at Good Things was an invitation not to be turned down.
“I’ve been watching the festival for the last few years,” he says. “I was a little pleased to be invited to play on this year’s lineup. It’s interesting because there are bands that we have played with in the past, now back on here as well. Some of them, like Korn… we played with them probably 30 years ago! And L7, we actually toured Australia with them in 1995.”
Bringing things back to the present, 2024 has been a busy year for Violent Femmes, who have been on the road celebrating the 40th anniversary of their second album, Hallowed Ground.
Released in 1984, the album was divisive and in terms of their wider catalogue, Hallowed Ground is a record that pushed boundaries within the band; it purposefully rubbed their fans and critics in different ways, but with time has come to be regarded as one of Violent Femmes’ best.
While most of the band’s touring has kept Violent Femmes back in North America this year, Ritchie shares that the band’s return to Australia has been an opportunity for them to not only celebrate Hallowed Ground, but also mark their 40th anniversary of their first tour of the country.
The connection Ritchie has with Australia is one that extends outside Violent Femmes, the musician having been based in Tasmania since 2008, even holding dual US and Australian citizenship.
So while touring here may not be the biggest exertion for Ritchie, he does acknowledge that being able to bring the full Violent Femmes experience back to Australian fans again has been a treat.
“It’s 40 years of Hallowed Ground, as well as the 40-plus year anniversary of the first album,” he explains. “When we came to Australia, we just decided to keep going with the idea because it’s also the 40th anniversary of our first tour of Australia.
“We had to cancel our tour in 2020 because of COVID; the other guys were set to come over here and I think two days before, the lockdowns occurred. Everything was cancelled right before they got on the plane. This has been a bit of a full circle moment.”
When you’ve got a catalogue as extensive and influential as Violent Femmes have, putting together a setlist at the best of times could be headache-inducing.
Ritchie, however, has an easy solution: they usually don’t make one.
This Australian run has been slightly different: the inclusion of AUSLAN interpreters at all dates on the Good Things run meant that the band were able to provide a setlist of songs together for them to be able to learn and research ahead of time.
It also meant they were able to create an experience that brought together the best of their first and second albums for those who had been hanging out to celebrate these milestones with Violent Femmes, and for those who had experienced missed opportunities to do so in recent years.
“It wouldn’t usually be our strategy,” Ritchie says. “But it has been cool. We would usually play a lot of songs from that [self-titled] album anyway, but being able to create a show where the songs are performed in order, as on the album, adds to the trajectory of the narrative we built.
“People have listened to the albums a thousand times at this point; they’ve been part of parties, so many experiences, across many generations. I can talk to somebody who is 25 and they’ll have a similar story to someone I’ll talk to who may be 60 years old. We’ve been able to get into these people’s lives at various points, which is cool.”
The generational impact of this band is one Ritchie is proud of, and it’s tied to the different ways Violent Femmes music still hits.
Even now in a digital music climate, there is still an attachment to the concept of an album that can (and in some cases, must) be listened to front to back, to get the full experience.
“We’re going back into the era when you just have singles or even in some cases, people don’t even listen to a whole song, maybe only 20 or 30 seconds,” Ritchie says. “So, for some people, that snippet is all they know of any band.
“With an album, whether it’s ours or somebody else’s ageing over the course of decades and generations, you can interpret in different ways. You’ll interpret things differently than you did 20, 30 or 40 years ago. For us, we do at least have albums that you can listen to all the way through. [Live], it’s still very exciting. We feel that from the audience. It adds another layer to it all.”
