Features
Violent Femmes, Swans For Mona Foma
The Violent Femmes, touring Australia as part of 30th anniversary celebrations, are a featured acts for Tasmania’s 2015 MONA FOMA (Museum of Old and New Art Festival of Music and Art).
The band’s inclusion is not surprising: Femmes bassist Brian Ritchie, who now lives in Tasmania, curates the 7-year-old event, which this January drew 28,000 fans.
Ritchie’s left-of-center bookings include Swans, Shonen Knife, Amanda Palmer with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, Dan Deacon, Gotye guesting with indie pop outfit Zammuto, Chinese performance artist Li Binyuan, Australian-Icelandic post-classical composer Ben Frost, an electric guitar orchestra led by Midnight Oil’s Jim Moginie, a participatory smartphone orchestra with sound artist Atticus J. Bastow, and indigenous troupe Young Wagilak Group with the Australian Art Orchestra.