While the Violent Femmes traditionally play concert venues, colleges and festivals, benefit shows are not out of the ordinary for a group whose songs occasionally verge on the political.
It was unclear who was there for the punk and who was there for the Judaism, but everyone seemed to be there for the music.
There were always Jews in punk, even before there was punk.
\”It really begins with Lenny Bruce,\” says Steven Beeber, whose new book \”The Heebie Jeebies at CBGBs: A Secret History of Jewish Punk,\” will be published next year by A Capella Books. \”Bruce sort of epitomizes the attitude, the whole smart-ass, clever truth-telling.\”
In fact, the punk attitude is also a Jewish attitude that begins with the midrash, in which Abram smashes all but one of his father\’s household idols and blames the sole survivor for the wreckage.
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