The Violent Femmes self-titled 1983 debut is a deathless classic, a lightning-in-a-bottle masterpiece of teen alienation and post-adolescent psychodrama with the same trans-generational reach and cultural potency of Rebel Without A Cause, Romeo & Juliet and The Catcher In The Rye. The album indelibly mapped the frantic vicissitudes of teendom — the nihilistic angst, the desolate anomie, the hormonal riots — and scored the late-night dorm room soundtrack for a million private rebellions. Thirty three years later, the album’s power to provoke, amuse and connect with succeeding generations of angst-ridden post-adolescents of all ages remains undiminished. In the interim, the Femmes recorded eight more albums of varying critical prestige, toured their brains out, broke up in 2009, reunited in 2013 and have been at it ever since. Last year, the Femmes released We Can Do Anything, their first LP of original material in 16 years. A worldwide tour in support of the new album, which represents a return to the raw, stripped-down immediacy of the debut, brings them to the ” target=”_blank”>Skyline Stage of the Mann Center tomorrow night with Echo & The Bunnymen. We have a couple pairs of tickets to give away to some lucky Phawker readers. To qualify to win, send an email to Phawker66@gmail.com with the correct answer to this VF trivia question: In song, Gordon Gano (in)famously took pills for the following reasons:
I take one, one, one ’cause you left me
And two, two, two for my family
And three, three, three for my heartache
And four, four, four for my headaches
And five, five, five for my lonely
And six, six, six for my sorrow
And seven, seven for no tomorrow
What was eight for?
Include the magic words THIS WILL GO DOWN ON YOUR PERMANENT RECORD in the subject line along with your full name and a mobile number for confirmation. The 37th and 64th persons to email us with the correct answer win. Good luck and godspeed!
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THE VIOLENT FEMMES + ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN @ THE MANN JULY 11TH