Pop : Femmes Combine Joy, Rage at Universal Show

Why ask why? Don’t ask Gordon Gano, leader of the alternative-rocking Violent Femmes.

To question is the very center of his being--I ask, therefore I am. The Milwaukee trio’s latest album is titled “Why Do Birds Sing?”; its 1982 debut revolved around Gano’s questions concerning his lack of carnal gratification. Cosmic or carnal, the questions are all the same to him.

And when Gano is at his best--as during the Femmes’ concert Friday at the Universal Amphitheatre--the concerns are pursued with equal fervor. The singer is as likely to be petulant as prayerful. This isn’t the woe-is-me mopes of Depeche Mode or the Cure, but a complex mix of heavenward pleas, earthbound rage and joy derived from both locales.

The result is a unique bond with the Femmes’ fans: Not only did most of the 5,000-plus fans at the Universal sing along with Gano through most of the 95-minute set, but Friday may have been the first time in rock history that a band has inspired both stage diving and reverently lofted lighters during the same song.

The Meat Puppets, the Phoenix trio that opened the show, still has its skewed, desert-baked musical sense after a recent leap to a major label, but shows few signs of progress since it became an underground favorite in the mid-’80s.