Violent Femmes | Thursday at the Square, Buffalo

For those of you who don't know, Thursdays at the Square is a free concert series put on in Buffalo every summer right in the heart of downtown. Usually bringing acts more jam-based or not very well known, as it is more of a social event than a concert for most, the Square is attracting bigger and bigger acts every year like Medeski, Martin & Wood, Robert Randolph & The Family Band, Sam Roberts, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and even Broken Social Scene(!!!), who were a last minute replacement for Sound Tribe Sector 9(???) that I will forever regret missing. The only one I was truly had to see this year was Gordon Gano and The Violent Femmes, who came around last Thursday.

As soon as I got there, I remembered why I don't go to the Square. It's packed with people, most don't even know who is playing, many are smoking, many are being annoyingly drunk, and others are just plain skeevy. My friends and I were lucky enough to stand behind a Johnny Depp look-alike, complete with greeen bandana, Depp facial hair, sunglasses, leather gloves (that was the scary part), and a cigar, which he never lit, as he stood completely still during the entire Femmes performance, and never clapped once.

Anyways, The Femmes were awesome. Despite the Square's crummy soundsystem, the old dudes still had it, playing for about an hour and a half, including a healthy amount of songs from their self-titled debut album. I was hoping they would do a Gnarls Barkley cover after playing "Gone Daddy Gone," but there was not even a mention of Cee-Lo or DangerMouse. They had some great help from a horn section, and Brian Ritchie ripped it up on bass and what looked like a one-string bass attached to a bamboo stick. Minus the atmosphere the Square created, free doesn't get much better than this.