Reykjavík Grapevine - 28.05.2004, Síða 21

21the reykjavík grapevine
Violent Femmes: New York band searches for its roots.
by Bart Cameron
“So that’s why you talk funny,” says Gordon Gano, the singer
and songwriter of the Violent Femmes, when I introduce myself as a
writer from Racine, Wisconsin.
LISTINGS : continuedNIGHTLIFEMUSICand
Gaukur á Stöng
Band Buff plays whatever, however and all over
Amsterdam
Band Penta plays covers
Sirkus
Discotheque Árni Sveinsson
Dillon
DJ Andrea Jóns plays rock classics
Hressingarskálinn
DJ Atli Skemmtanalögga
Felix
DJ Doktorinn
Prikið
DJ Jói
Hverfisbar
DJ Kiddi Bigfoot plays the same record
Nelly´s
DJ Nonni 900x2=1800
Kaffibarinn
DJ Raggi, member of band Botnleðja
Vegamót
DJ Sóley
Glaumbar
DJ Þór Bæring
Café Sólon
DJ Þröstur 3000
Thorvaldsen bar
DJ’s Daddi Disko & Hlynur Mastermix
Ari í Ögri
Troubadour duet Dralon play covers
SUNDAY
MAY 30
Kaffibarinn
DJ Árni Sveins
Sirkus
DJ KGB
Prikið
DJ KGB
Amsterdam
DJ Steini
Dubliners
Troubadour Ingvar Valgeirs
Café 22
DJ Honky Tonk (Andri X)
Kapital
303; Frímann & Bjössi
Felix
DJ Andri
Hverfisbar
DJ Kiddi Bigfoot, probably didn’t go home to get
a new record to play.
Glaumbar
DJ Þór Bæring
WEDNESDAY
JUNE 2
Kaffibarinn
DJ Jón Atli
Kapital
Chill Out; Ambient, Jazz & Beer offers
Dubliners
Troubadour Bjarni Tryggva
Bar 11
Band 5ta Herdeildin play
Glaumbar
DJ Stoner the Boner
THURSDAY
JUNE 3
Kaffibarinn
DJ Raggi again
Grand Rokk
18:00: Opening
The Grand Rokk Male Choir sings. Opening of
art exhibition by known local artists, including
footballer Halldór, as well as a 2nd exhibition of
young artists from Faxaskáli workshop.
21:00 Crime short story contest. 40 stories
compete
23:00 Jazz night. Siggi Flosi Trio.
Kapital
Breakbeat.is; DJ’s Gunni Ewok, Lelli, Kalli, Reynir
Jón Forseti
Karaoke Night
Prikið
Lady’s Night: DJ Sóley
Dubliners
Troubadour Bjarni Tryggva
Gaukur á Stöng
Band Úlpa play. Úlpa are one of the finer members
of the underground music scene, great stuff.
Bar 11
Rockband Jan Mayen, their last release was cho-
sen EP of the year
Nasa
Band START
Glaumbar
DJ Stoner the Boner
FRIDAY
JUNE 4
Bar 11
DJ Hædí
Nasa
DJ She-Devil from the U.K:
Dubliners
Cover band Spilafíklar
Grand Rokk
17:30 Pub Quiz
19:30 Band Slow Beatles (downstairs)
20:30 Last years short films screened
21:30 Live Music: Gummi Jóns, Daysleeper, 9-
11’s, Lára and also; Band Lokbrá performs Icelan-
dic trad. songs.
Prikið
Band Búðarbandið entertain themselves and
others
Kapital
DJ Exos
Miðbar
Pianist Sigurjón plays singalongs
Nasa
Band START
Gaukur á Stöng
Band Íslenski Fáninn or The Icelandic Flag play
covers. Most song Icelandic trad pop.
Dillon
DJ Andrea Jóns plays rock classics
Hressingarskálinn
DJ Atli Skemmtanalögga
Felix
DJ Doktorinn
Prikið
DJ KGB
Café Sólon
DJ Þröstur 3000
Vegamót
DJ’s Dóri & Hannes
De Palace
Mjölnis & Tangarhöfða party
Ari í Ögri
Troubadour duet Acoustic play covers
Celtic Cross
Troubadours Ómar Hlynsson and Garðar Garðars-
son
SATURDAY
JUNE 5
Kaffibarinn
Lobster summer, DJ KGB
Bar 11
DJ Frosti
Dubliners
Cover band Spilafíklar
Grand Rokk
14:00 Documentary Hestasaga (Horse tale) by
Þorfinnur Guðnason preview
15:00 An outdoor event by Ragga Gísla & Anna
Richardsdóttir
17:00 Cocktails
18:00 Grand Rokk’s 3rd annual Short Film festi-
val, 1st prize is 350.000kr
23:00 Culture ball
Jómfrúin
Summer Jazz, Sigurdur Flosason’s Trio. Lineup:
Sigurður Flosason - alt sax, Þórir Baldursson
- Hammond B-3 and Erik Qvick - Drums. Free
entrance.
Miðbar
Pianist Sigurjón plays singalongs
Dillon
DJ Andrea Jóns plays rock classics
Felix
DJ Andri
Hressingarskálinn
DJ Atli Skemmtanalögga
De Palace
DJ Extreme / Devious plays Psy-Trans music
Prikið
DJ Jói
Kapital
DJ Margeir & DJ Ymir
Café Sólon
DJ Þröstur 3000
Thorvaldsen bar
DJ’s Daddi Disko & Hlynur Mastermix
Vegamót
DJ’s Tommi White & Maggi Jóns
Gaukur á Stöng
Icelandic stoner rock band Brain Police and a
rock band from Sweeden (Grapevine didn’ know
who when this went to print) play rock.
Nelly´s
Princess Of India, Leoncie plays her greatest hits,
such as Love at the Bar.... Entrance fee 1000ISK.
Ari í Ögri
Troubadour duet Acoustic play covers
Celtic Cross
Troubadours Ómar Hlynsson and Garðar Garðars-
son
SUNDAY
JUNE 6
Grand Rokk
15:00 Short story competition rerun.
17:00 Bragi book auction, Jón Proppé with his
hammer
18:00 Art autcion, all paintings painted over the
weekend sold
19:30 Horse tale rerun
21:00 Andrea´s Bluesmen
Dubliners
Andy Garcia
Prikið
Cult movie night
TUESDAY
JUNE 8
Prikið
DJ experiments
WEDNESDAY
JUNE 9
Kaffibarinn
DJ Gísli Galdur
Bar 11
Band Heiða & Heiðingjarnir; See page 30
THURSDAY
JUNE 10
Kaffibarinn
DJ Benni
Jón Forseti
Karaoke Night
Bar 11
Band Sein play rock!!
Prikið
DJ Sóley, women night
LISTINGS : may 28 - june 10
The Violent Femmes were my local
band. I saw them at least five times
in high school. My friends and I
thought of them as friends who just
weren’t with us right now. We joked
about Gano’s odd weight fluctuation
in 1995 and his flat-out geekiness.
We made fun of Brian Ritchie
for being so angry and for playing
instruments with a little too much
competence and intensity - too
much like a Wisconsin jock. We
made fun of Victor Delorenzo for
being too ridiculously entertaining -
if you make a joke at an inopportune
time, my friends will say you’ve
pulled an “Uncle Victor.”
We are all from what might
be called a difficult section of
Wisconsin; the industrial corridor
between Chicago and Milwaukee
along Lake Michigan known for its
pollution and juvenile crime.
Of course, that was ten years ago. I
now tell people I’m from Brooklyn,
not the armpit of Southeastern
Wisconsin. And I’m interviewing
Gordon Gano in Reykjavík, a
town that, from the statistics about
literacy, crime and clean air, is
something like the opposite of our
home towns.
Gano is smoking a cigar, sipping an
espresso and, it seems to me, facing
me down.
“How do you feel Wisconsin affected
your music,” I say, and he grimaces.
“I don’t really see how Wisconsin
played a role in the music,” he says.
“Brian and Victor feel differently,
but, well, except for having time and
nothing else to do… I never even
fit in there. People always asked me
where I was from.”
That pretty much shoots the
interview. I have eight more minutes
to talk to the man I thought wrote
poignant, fantastically candid and
amusing lyrics dedicated to the
Wisconsin experience. He doesn’t
agree.
I ask if he can think of anything else
about our home state. This is the
lead singer of the band that released
an album called “Viva, Wisconsin.”
“I always say I did ten to twenty in
Wisconsin.”
Change of subject.
I can’t bring myself to ask the
joke question ‘What do you think
of Iceland?’ so I nod toward the
Penninn bag on his dressing room
table and tell him that Icelanders had
told me he bought a lot of expensive
poetry.
He can’t believe I could know about
this, that Reykjavík could be such
a small town. He pulls out Action
Poetique and shrugs at it. In a
rush he bought a translation from
Icelandic to French.
I ask if he speaks French.
“I can get the meaning, but not
much else,” he says.
I realize that I’m not getting along
with my idol.
It gets worse. “You know who I’ve
found here? Jón Leifs or Liefs. Great
classical composer of the early 20th
Century. Mixed the traditions of
Iceland with German training. From
what I can tell, he really succeeded.”
Gordon Gano, the man who wrote
the catchiest masturbation jingle in
the history of modern music, may
have just uttered the most boring
sentences I’ve heard in Iceland.
Victor Delorenzo comes in and
saves the day. “You´re from Racine?
My god, I can’t believe that. Such
a small world,” he says when Gano
introduces me.
We leave Gano to his dressing room,
Brian Ritchie is wandering between
the backstage area and the show to
hear the opening band and stopping
occasionally to explain to everyone
how he missed the tour of Reykjavík.
“I thought you said we were going
at three o’clock. So I woke up late
and thought everyone had gone and
I went out by myself. But you left
at three.” He repeats this to each
person who will listen, three times
total.
Delorenzo is ecstatic in general, and
he is talking about the pleasures
of traveling, his new solo album,
a musical interpretation of Marcel
Duchamp, his son in Brooklyn, and
the neighborhoods and atmospheres
of our home town. “You know what
it is about Racine, it was so desolate.
It created that railroad folk sound,”
Delorenzo says and nods at me
so that I write it down. He seems
impossibly happy about being from a
desolate, railroad folk town.
The band has to go on in five
minutes, and Victor Delorenzo is
still talking with me, though he
takes breaks to talk with the security
guards and anybody else who seems
at all uncomfortable. Finally he
apologizes and says he should go to
the dressing room, “Because I should
at least go over things before we go
on.”
Minutes later, the Violent Femmes
play for a sold out audience - at
about $40 a ticket. They play better
than I’ve ever seen them play, and
I think about telling the show’s
producers, three unusually affable
Icelanders, about the time Gano
played nothing but feedback for
twenty minutes, mumbling his
own name into the microphone to
a crowd of 15,000 Wisconsin fans
waiting for “Blister in the Sun.”
The producers are mostly talking
about Victor Delorenzo, though,
who they claim is one of the nicest
people they’ve ever met. Toward the
end of the Reykjavík show, Gano
introduces himself. “I´m from New
York,” he says.