Violent Femmes, Milwaukee Symphony make an amazing team at band's hometown tour kickoff

Gordon Gano's beaming eyes and huge smile said it all before he uttered a word.

"It was such a special night," the Violent Femmes frontman said from the Bradley Symphony Center stage following the first performance of the band's fall tour Tuesday.

Way back in 1981, Gano and Femmes co-founder Brian Ritchie played together for the first time at Rufus King International High School — a scandalous performance of what would become the Femmes' raunchy ode to male teenage lust, "Gimme the Car."

Flash forward to Tuesday night, and Gano and Ritchie were playing the song again — now with the backing of the 54-piece Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra in the MSO's ornate concert hall.

No doubt a teenage Gano could not have fathomed this future when he, Ritchie and original grill-and-snare-slapping drummer Victor DeLorenzo established what would become the most popular Milwaukee band of all time. And it's safe to say a lot of longtime fans, even in their hometown, probably never imagined this either.

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Violent Femmes and MSO an inspired sonic blend

In a recent Journal Sentinel interview, Ritchie made the case that the Femmes being an acoustic band made them a great fit with an orchestra. Sonically, yes, that makes sense. But the power of the Femmes' seminal first album — the focal point of Tuesday's show and the band's fall tour, in honor of the album's 40th anniversary — is the sparseness of its folk punk songs, the rawness of Gano's anxious voice.

Add a symphony and you add a threat. What makes that music so special, so visceral, may cease to exist.

That admittedly was the case for "Blister in the Sun" Tuesday, with perfunctory symphonic extensions of the original song's immortal melodies taming Gano's visceral yelps about going wild. But Tuesday's 10 other symphonic pairings were inspired.

Tim Jones, a tuba player with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (Ritchie has lived in Tasmania since 2007), has played some Femmes shows as part of the band's Horns of Dilemma ensemble. He wrote the arrangements, creatively contrasting, enhancing and occasionally transcending the original songs' energy.

The first distinction Tuesday was the start of show opener "Add It Up." A heroic horn recalled Richard Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra," a slyly comic contrast to Gano's disgruntled, primal pining that was embellished by the sweeping momentum of the strings.

"Confessions" also snuck in a delicious contrast, with the golden strokes of a harp following Gano, Ritchie and Femmes percussionist John Sparrow's hideous cries to "hack, hack, hack, hack, hack, hack, hack it apart." Soon enough, the symphony obliged; the song reached its anarchic finale with Sparrow violently smacking the grill and snare drum with his metal brushes, and Ritchie blowing into a conch shell.

And "Gone Daddy Gone" was a dizzying delight. Ritchie's expressive xylophone solo has long been a standout moment at Femmes shows. But with whimsical strings and horns — and, for a flash, a circus-like whistle — surrounding it, "Gone Daddy Gone" achieved a new level of glory.

Even though "Violent Femmes" was played in full Tuesday (although not in order), the band and MSO teamed up on other songs from the band's catalog.

For the provocative "Gimme the Car," suspended symphonic backing, in anticipation of Gano's desired romantic rendezvous, gave way to blunt, testosterone-pumping melodies as Gano's pleading lyrics became more desperate. "American Music" had Gano strumming a banjo and heads in the audience swaying to the symphony's Broadway-ready waltz. There was greater cinematic heft to "Color Me Once," fitting as the Femmes' contribution to "The Crow" soundtrack. And dreamy strings seemingly inspired by a Douglas Sirk movie surrounded Gano's longing for "All I Want," conveying the fantasy in his mind that tangibly remains out of reach.

The 75-minute set also had five songs that the Femmes played without the full symphony. Sax player Blaise Garza, whose instruments Tuesday included a baritone saxophone taller than he was, shined for "I Held Her in My Arms," his swinging bluster backed by the MSO's humming horn section.

And by the time the band had sunk its teeth into the night's seventh song "To the Kill" — with Gano's erratic hollers and Ritchie's rollicking acoustic bass grooves — the arm-swinging Sparrow was doused in sweat. (He was playing so hard Tuesday that he accidentally flung one of his brushes into the string section.)

There were two songs included in Tuesday's concert that weren't listed in the program: "Blister in the Sun" and "Good Feeling," the partnership's greatest achievement Tuesday.

Ritchie has aptly called the Violent Femmes' debut album "teenage music," and on stage in their 60s, Gano and Ritchie are still able to channel those coming-of-age anxieties.

"Violent Femmes" closer "Good Feeling" is the exception, a song that has taken on greater significance with time. And with the accompaniment of the MSO, it was majestic. Over the initial contemplative notes of a xylophone and a cello before surging to bittersweet grandeur, Gano tenderly ached for a sense of happiness that was slipping away, bringing a profound weight only a long life of ups and downs could convey.

I've lost count of how many Femmes shows I've had the privilege to see over the years, from Summerfest to the Riverside Theater to a grand opening set at Fiserv Forum.

But Gano was right. This one was special. The most special.

5 takeaways from Violent Femmes' Bradley Symphony Center concert

• Cameras were rolling for Tuesday’s concert for a Milwaukee PBS special that will be distributed to other PBS affiliates. No word on a release date yet, but I can't wait to see it.

• For anyone wondering if Gano would drop F-bombs at the Bradley Symphony Center during "Add It Up," he censored himself. Best not to have those hideous beeps cutting in on the PBS broadcast. But I am curious if an unplanned exchange between Gano and Ritchie will make the cut, when the latter mistakenly jumped to the xylophone ahead of "Kill." Gano gave Ritchie a lot of tongue-in-cheek grief for that, with Ritchie offering a deadpan smile in return.

• One of Milwaukee's all-time great rockers was in the crowd Tuesday: Jerry Harrison, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee with Talking Heads, who appeared at four Oriental Theatre screenings of the restored concert film "Stop Making Sense" over the weekend. He raved about the show when I bumped into him afterward, what turned out to be the capper for an incredible run of concert-going for Harrison that included Peter Gabriel at Fiserv Forum Monday and seeing U2 at the high-tech new Las Vegas venue Sphere for the opening night of their residency last Friday.

• Tuesday also marked the MSO conducting debut of Ryan Tani, who was hired as an assistant conductor in June. Aside from his primary duties, Tani had such expressive facial expressions, his electric eyes and exasperated smiles serving as a conduit for the audience's elation, making him an effective hype man for band and symphony alike.

• If you want to catch the Femmes in their home state, you can see them at the Sylvee, sans symphony, in Madison Wednesday.

Violent Femmes and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra setlist

1. "Add It Up"

2. "Confessions"

3. "Prove My Love" (band solo)

4. "Promise" (band solo)

5. "All I Want"

6. "Color Me Once"

7. "To the Kill" (band solo)

8. "Gone Daddy Gone"

9. "Look Like That"

10. "I Held Her in my Arms"

11. "American Music"

12. "Kiss Off" (band solo)

13. "Please Do Not Go" (band solo)

14. "Gimme the Car"

15. "Add It Up" (reprise)

16. "Blister in the Sun"

17. "Good Feeling"

Contact Piet at (414) 223-5162 or plevy@journalsentinel.com. Follow him on X at @pietlevy or Facebook at facebook.com/PietLevyMJS.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Violent Femmes, Milwaukee Symphony an amazing team at tour kickoff