Violent Femmes – Rumsey Playfield, Central Park, NY, 9/12/13

Flash floods disrupted Violent Femmes 18 minutes into their set Thursday in Central Park, and ultimately halted the band’s first New York show since 2007.

After playing only five songs, and waiting 20 minutes for the lightning strikes to pass, they were told to cut the performance short. “It’s nobody’s fault; it’s the law,” bassist Brian Ritchie apologized, promising they would return in October. Behind him a crew scrambled to cover the instruments with tarps. At 7:48, event security ordered Rumsey Playfield cleared, and an exodus of people retreated into the park, where its roads swelled with ankle-deep water.

Earlier in the day organizers had pushed the show to start a half-hour earlier, hoping to beat the storm. Already, the New York gig was something of an anomaly: it would be the first to feature the group’s 1983 debut album in full, and the first live date for drummer Brian Viglione, of the Dresden Dolls, who recently replaced Victor DeLorenzo. But rain-or-shine events have their limits, and so violent weather rapidly upended Violent Femmes.

With only minutes to spare, they opened with “Hallowed Ground,” and resurrected “All I Want” (from their last album, 2000’s Freak Magnet) and the folksy morbidity of “Nightmares.” Ritchie roamed the stage, engaging the audience while plucking the strings of his giant guitar to their breaking point. Frontman Gordon Gano stayed put, prepping his warbly vocal whine for what lay ahead: a 30th anniversary treat, in its entirety. Smoky clouds swirled overhead during “Blister in the Sun.” Next, the refrain of the equally catchy singalong, “Kiss Off,” rose from a sudden sea of umbrellas and ponchos near the stage; hundreds of soaked faces chanted “Do it all the time!” for what would be the night’s premature closer.

Just before the inevitable washout finally exploded, backup guitarist Jeff Hamilton and cajón player John Sparrow gave it all they had, while Viglione danced in place, hammering his sparse kit. As the rain dumped on the crowd and the cancellation loomed, he smiled and flipped two birds to the sky.