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Concert review: Pixies' first reunion concert is special
Chris Riemenschneider, MPLS Star Tribune
April 14, 2004
No nostalgic speeches were made. No $250 golden-circle tickets were sold. Nothing the Pixies said or did Tuesday night at the Fine Line Music Cafe suggested they were playing their first-ever reunion concert _ and that, of course, made the show all the more special.
The T-shirts on sale called it the ?Pixies Sellout? tour, but the truth is the Boston band that helped give birth to the early-?90s alternative rock boom could have done a lot more to milk its first public gig in 11 years.
Tickets originally sold for $30 were going for as much as $400 on EBay. Judging from the 500 or so fans who were lucky (or rich) enough to get in, the quartet could have charged twice that amount and gotten away with only playing half of the 27 songs in Tuesday?s setlist.
Actually, there were a lot of noticeable omissions in the fast-paced, 90-minute performance. Like many groups who split up less than amicably, the Pixies stuck mainly to early recordings _ from when things were still fun and innocent in the band.
Only one song from each of its two final albums were played, while three-quarters of its first two LPs and even a big chunk of its little-heard 1986 debut EP were offered. It didn?t matter, though. The crowd howled along to obscure oldies such as ?Broken Face?? and ?Levitate Me? as readily as it did to latter staples such as ?Here Comes Your Man? and ?U Mass.? The only song that wasn?t widely recognized Tuesday was a cover of Neil Young?s ?Winterlong,? which tells you a little something about the primary age and record collection of the Pixies? cult fan base.
This truly was a reunion concert Gen-X style, something the kids of boomers have really only experienced with one other band, Jane?s Addiction (which has unfortunately milked its reunions). The Pixies pre-dated the post-Nirvana days when cool alternative bands got played on FM radio, so there really weren?t ?hits? to play. That left them to terrific, deep-album cuts such such as ?No. 13 Baby?? and ?La La Love You,?? the latter of which was introduced by bassist Kim Deal as ?one we never, ever played live.?
The few other comments made by the bandmembers fit the self-deprecating tone of the T-shirts. When frontman Frank Black/Black Francis (real name: Charles Thompson) struggled to tune his guitar before ?Vamos,?? he remarked, ?This is starting to seem like our first gig.??
There were some assorted missteps, too: a botched bass part in ?Tame,? an out-of-tune ?Velouria,?? and the poorly paced encore lagged except for a singalong version of ?Where Is My Mind??? On the other hand, Francis? scream of a voice was in great shape, and he and Deal _ who were at odds with each other all these years _ could still harmonize like best buddies. Thankfully, though, that?s as close as they got to appearing sentimental.
Pixies set list:
?Bone Machine?
?Wave of Mutilation??
?U Mass??
?Levitate Me?
?Broken Face?
?Monkey Gone to Heaven?
?The Holiday Song?
?Winterlong?
?Nimrod?s Son?
?La La Love You?
?Ed Is Dead?
?Here Comes Your Man?
?Vamos?
?Debaser?
?Dead?
?No. 13 Baby?
?Tame?
?Gigantic?
?Gouge Away?
?Caribou?
Encore:
?Isla de Encanta?
?Something Against You?
?Velouria?
?In Heaven?
"Wave of Mutilation" (slow version)
?Where Is My Mind??
?Into the White?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I so miss living in Minneapolis when I read about things like this.
I need one of those tour shirts too!
Chris Riemenschneider, MPLS Star Tribune
April 14, 2004
No nostalgic speeches were made. No $250 golden-circle tickets were sold. Nothing the Pixies said or did Tuesday night at the Fine Line Music Cafe suggested they were playing their first-ever reunion concert _ and that, of course, made the show all the more special.
The T-shirts on sale called it the ?Pixies Sellout? tour, but the truth is the Boston band that helped give birth to the early-?90s alternative rock boom could have done a lot more to milk its first public gig in 11 years.
Tickets originally sold for $30 were going for as much as $400 on EBay. Judging from the 500 or so fans who were lucky (or rich) enough to get in, the quartet could have charged twice that amount and gotten away with only playing half of the 27 songs in Tuesday?s setlist.
Actually, there were a lot of noticeable omissions in the fast-paced, 90-minute performance. Like many groups who split up less than amicably, the Pixies stuck mainly to early recordings _ from when things were still fun and innocent in the band.
Only one song from each of its two final albums were played, while three-quarters of its first two LPs and even a big chunk of its little-heard 1986 debut EP were offered. It didn?t matter, though. The crowd howled along to obscure oldies such as ?Broken Face?? and ?Levitate Me? as readily as it did to latter staples such as ?Here Comes Your Man? and ?U Mass.? The only song that wasn?t widely recognized Tuesday was a cover of Neil Young?s ?Winterlong,? which tells you a little something about the primary age and record collection of the Pixies? cult fan base.
This truly was a reunion concert Gen-X style, something the kids of boomers have really only experienced with one other band, Jane?s Addiction (which has unfortunately milked its reunions). The Pixies pre-dated the post-Nirvana days when cool alternative bands got played on FM radio, so there really weren?t ?hits? to play. That left them to terrific, deep-album cuts such such as ?No. 13 Baby?? and ?La La Love You,?? the latter of which was introduced by bassist Kim Deal as ?one we never, ever played live.?
The few other comments made by the bandmembers fit the self-deprecating tone of the T-shirts. When frontman Frank Black/Black Francis (real name: Charles Thompson) struggled to tune his guitar before ?Vamos,?? he remarked, ?This is starting to seem like our first gig.??
There were some assorted missteps, too: a botched bass part in ?Tame,? an out-of-tune ?Velouria,?? and the poorly paced encore lagged except for a singalong version of ?Where Is My Mind??? On the other hand, Francis? scream of a voice was in great shape, and he and Deal _ who were at odds with each other all these years _ could still harmonize like best buddies. Thankfully, though, that?s as close as they got to appearing sentimental.
Pixies set list:
?Bone Machine?
?Wave of Mutilation??
?U Mass??
?Levitate Me?
?Broken Face?
?Monkey Gone to Heaven?
?The Holiday Song?
?Winterlong?
?Nimrod?s Son?
?La La Love You?
?Ed Is Dead?
?Here Comes Your Man?
?Vamos?
?Debaser?
?Dead?
?No. 13 Baby?
?Tame?
?Gigantic?
?Gouge Away?
?Caribou?
Encore:
?Isla de Encanta?
?Something Against You?
?Velouria?
?In Heaven?
"Wave of Mutilation" (slow version)
?Where Is My Mind??
?Into the White?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I so miss living in Minneapolis when I read about things like this.
I need one of those tour shirts too!
