Festival welcomes Violent Femmes

Seminal alt-rockers Violent Femmes will be giving fans a not-to-be-missed one-two punch, or more accurately a two-one punch, as they take to the Festival stage today.

Tickets to the show, which starts at 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 26, are still available.

The Femmes will start the show by playing their second album, "Hallowed Ground", which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, in its entirety. After a brief intermission, the band will retake the stage and play its debut album, "Violent Femmes" from cover to cover — as well as a few fan and band favorites from over the years.

The show will capture a pivotal moment in both the band's history and music as guitarist Gordon Gano wrote the songs for both albums while still in high school. In fact, the tracks for "Hallowed Ground" were penned first, long before the release of "Violent Femmes." However, band members have said they wanted to focus on upbeat songs for their debut album and wanted to “confuse people” with the more experimental songs that ended up as "Hallowed Ground."

The result was two unique sounds, showing two very different sides of the Violent Femmes.

Their eponymous record amplified teen angst and alienation in the 1980s with such songs as “Kiss Off,” “Add It Up,” and “Gone Daddy Gone.” The album, which was mostly autobiographical, would later prove to embody some of the most relatable and enduring anthems of a disenchanted youth that the world has ever known. Today, it stands as a pillar of an American underground movement and one of the best early examples of alternative rock.

Meanwhile, "Hallowed Ground," on the other hand, incorporates elements of country, gospel, and blues. The eclectic, genre-mixing sound surprised many expecting an album much like the Femme's debut — songs full of teen-rage punk songs. The album showed the Femmes would not follow expectations but would stay true to themselves and their music. Forty years later, "Hallowed Ground" continues to mystify and excite listeners — which it what was what the Femmes planned all along.

Since its debut and sophomore albums, the Femmes have released 10 studio albums, including "Hotel Last Resort" in 2019. Today, Violent Femmes continue to resonate with audiences of all ages. Upon the band’s 40th anniversary, Pitchfork wrote that “The Femmes don’t signify an era so much as a time of life,” adding that “for young people growing up in the internet age,” their music “is part of a shared language.”

The concert is a seated and standing show, meaning the area in front of the stage is general admission and is standing and dancing only.

Early entry and sponsor gates open at 5:45 p.m.; general admission and season pass gates open at 6 p.m. Music begins at 7:30 p.m.

Free parking is available at Sandpoint High School, 410 S. Division and a free SPOT bus shuttle service to and from Memorial Field runs continuously from 4-11 p.m.

Information: Festival at Sandpoint, festivalatsandpoint.com