ON THIS DAY IN CITY GARDENS HISTORY: SEPTEMBER 13 1985 VIOLENT FEMMES AND THE BEN VAUGN COMBO PLAY TRENTON Heres an excerpt from No Slam Dancing about that night. Get your copy now at us.infinitemerch/collections/no-slam-dancing-no-stage-diving-no-spikes Violent Femmes – September 13, 1985 Ben Vaughn (Ben Vaughn Combo): Going to City Gardens was great for a lot of reasons, but my friendship with [owners] Tut and Patti was a big part of it. Tut got the word out that we were worth seeing. We couldnt get booked in Philly to save ourselves. We would play on street corners, but the Violent Femmes’ manager starting managing us in 1985, and we began opening for them on every New York City gig. By then we were getting booked everywhere except Philadelphia. It was really strange. It took a New York booking agent to get us into clubs in the very city where we lived. Philadelphia is a strange place. I love it, but there is this adversarial and territorial attitude. I have no idea why we couldnt get booked. We had an accordion and an upright bass, so maybe people just werent ready for us. We would play places like [New York club] Danceteria, opening for crazy punk and industrial bands, and people loved us, but Philly wasnt ready. In Philly, you had blues bars, punk clubs, and new wave dance clubs, and we didnt fit into any of that. Bookers would hear our tape and be like, What are we supposed to do with this? Why dont you play the Philadelphia Folk Festival? They just didnt understand that it could work. I played trombone a little bit, and when the guys in the Violent Femmes found out, they insisted I be in their horn section, The Horns of Dilemma. When we would finish our set, I would hang around in the wings with my trombone and then they would bring me up. I could hardly play and I barely knew where the notes were. I could play in two keys, F and A, I think. But they thought I was great. They liked the chaos of it. Gordon Gano (Violent Femmes guitar/vocals): The Horns of Dilemma was a band idea, but I loved it and fully endorsed it. Certain songs were good for improvisation, and we would invite different people on stage, particularly horn players. It was free improvisation, so it wasn’t necessary for the people playing to know the song. The idea was to have people who could play really well, and they would add textures and colors into the cacophony. Basically, if someone is a musician, they can make some kind of sound with an instrument, even if they haven’t been trained on it. A lot of people played in band in high school and then never picked that instrument again, so this was the chance to play the instrument again. Ornette Coleman and Sun Ra were big influences on the Violent Femmes, so we were drawing on that. The response was always great. A lot of people in the audience had never heard anything like it. Those are still my favorite parts of the show, when we use improvisation. We sort of had it somewhat planned when it would happen, but it could actually happen at any time in any song. Ben Vaughn: Opening for the Violent Femmes was an interesting gig. Musically it made a lot of sense, but their audience was there to sing along to “Add It Up.” Thats why they were there, and the Ben Vaughn Combo was delaying the audiences performance. And I know the Femmes had trouble with it too, because the crowd would be restless during other songs, and then go nuts during “Add It Up”. But it was really bad for us, the sacrificial opening act. Once that song caught on, and the Femmes caught on, anyone opening for them was in trouble. It always felt like we were getting ready to go into a gladiator arena. It was work. Gal Gaiser (City Gardens DJ): A lot of bands hated walking through the crowd to get to the stage from the dressing room, especially when it was packed. Well, this show was packed to the rafters, and the Violent Femmes not only walked through the crowd, they did it playing their instruments and singing. People heard a commotion at the back of the club and it was them coming through the crowd, parting it like the Red Sea, playing a song. Anthony Pelluso (City Gardens bartender): Gordon Gano was an unbelievably nice guy. They always hung out at the bar afterwards and talked to everyone. We loved the Violent Femmes so much, and he was just this regular, skinny guy. Gordon Gano: I never get tired of playing the songs people want to hear. That joy and response, that interaction with them singing along, and that feeling from the audience is part of the live experience.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 01:59:26 +0000
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