Violent Femmes

"Blister in the Sun," "Add It Up," "Kiss Off, " "Gimme the Car" and "Gone Daddy Gone" capture — possibly better than any others — the raw urgency and angst that come with coming of age.

These are the themes of youth — and they're timeless.

"A lot of what we explored in a lot of our material doesn't really have an expiration date," drummer Victor De Lorenzo said in a phone interview from his Milwaukee home. "It goes throughout your whole life, those feelings of wanting to be someone, hoping to be lucky in love and life and seeking peace in one's life. I think those are things people wrestle with the whole time they're on Earth."

They also have universal appeal. The drummer predicts a large chunk of the folks at the Tucson concert Saturday will have been born after the band's eponymous 1982 debut album.

"The band has such a great word-of-mouth appeal," he said. "That first album is passed down from generation to generation almost like Grandma's favorite doilies. It's very easy for us to sell out venues all over the world because the album is always being reconstituted to a younger audience."

It's an impressive feat for a band that's been around for a quarter-century.

The Violent Femmes ("femmes" was a Milwaukee slang word for wimp) formed in the early '80s with De Lorenzo, bassist/multi-instrumentalist Brian Ritchie and singer/songwriter Gordon Gano.

The band created its signature sparse acoustic sound in the early days. Rather than rehearse, the members took their instruments to the streets; portability was more imperative than versatility. It was there that De Lorenzo developed his standing drum kit, which involves a snare drum, a floor tom-tom and one cymbal.

"The original impetus was just to be portable so we could play out on the streets," De Lorenzo said. "I liked the sound of it, and I figured for what I was doing it made me unique. I could play well enough with such a stripped-down assortment of instruments that people wouldn't miss the drum set."

The band's debut wasn't a commercial success — it "has the distinction of being the only album in the history of Billboard magazine to achieve platinum status without ever appearing in the Top 200," according to the band's Web site — but it became an instant cult hit.

Generations of listeners still can't help but sing along to the increasingly insistent "why can't I . . ." plea on "Add it Up," the counting on "Kiss Off" and the bleeping guitar bends on "Gimme the Car." The sparse punk rock was clever, humorous and infectious and incorporated elements of revolutionary jazz, punk rock and country.

"It's kind of commonplace now, but 25 years ago it was like, 'Do you play rock or not?'" De Lorenzo said. "There wasn't really that much of a choice. I think (we were) instrumental in creating a hybrid form of rock music. I don't mean to be presumptuous, but I think we silently influenced a lot of people even though we don't always get credit for it."

The band is now being credited with something else — the birth of emo.

"The Femmes proved that you could be honest about your emotions and still rock out, and that playing soft music to express sadness was the coward's way," said PopMatters.

The band released many other albums, but the raw, passionate debut was its most successful. De Lorenzo left the band for nine years to pursue other projects that included jazz and R&B bands and theater. He returned when the band's label announced it would release a deluxe 20th anniversary edition of the debut.

De Lorenzo looks forward to making a new Violent Femmes album eventually.

"We're just waiting for the right time and maybe see if we can find a record deal," he said. "The first question from everybody we talk to is, 'When are you guys going to do a new record?' So I'm really thinking it's quite a long overdue thing.

"I don't know what it's going to be like. I'm just hoping when we do do it that it's the best possible experience ever. I want to hear it just as much as everyone else. I want to see what the Femmes circa 2000 sound like."

quick take

Violent Femmes in concert

When: Doors open 6 p.m. Saturday; show time is 7 p.m.

Where: Rialto Theatre (Main Stages map, Page 10)

Tickets: $25 in advance and $30 day of show, 740-1000

Et cetera: All-ages show