The Pixies – Festival Hall

The Pixies shows were hotly anticipated and they were also bloody hot. It was like being transported back to a sweaty, inner-city public on a hot summers nights – somewhere a good proportion of this crowd had grown up. The show was like a reunion; many happy, familiar, slightly aged faces re-living the days of their altern-rock youth. I had a great time but my mate Ruttsy (Andrew Rutter) had an even better time, so we’ll let him tell the tale…..

When The Pixies last toured Australia with their “reunion” they were must-sees from a nostalgia perspective. Those shows made it obvious that they had lost nothing and their songs had stood the test of time very well.

So it was no wonder that a succession of shows sold out quickly for this latest Doolittle tour. The original line-up was all here – Black, Deal, Santiago & Lovering – the setlist was awesome containing B sides, the Doolittle album played song for song (as per the All Tomorrow’s Parties gigs) and a sprinkling of other “greatest hits” from Come on Pilgrim, Surfer Rosa, Bossanova and Trompe Le Monde

There is no pretence, no major showmanship and no fucking around with a Pixies gig. They hit the stage following a sepia-toned short film and get straight into it. Kicking off with Dancing the Manta Ray, Weird at My School, Bailey’s Walk & Manta Ray from the Complete B-sides compilation was a great way of warming up the crowd.

They then launched into the magnificent 1989 album Doolittle. Opening track Debaser with Frank Black’s vocal scream “Got me a movie, I want you to know…I am un chien Andalusia”) supplemented by Kim Deal’s slightly off kilter backups – sublime and brilliant. Next up Tame (“hips like Cinderella..”) with its trademark loudQUIETloud structure, “Uh huh, uh huh” refrain and gradual build-up to its sudden climax. Then the prescient El Nino song Wave of Mutilation was met with a rapt reception by a sweating crowd inside the Festering Hall sauna.

I Bleed with Kim Deal’s bassline, Lovering’s cracking drumbeat, the Black/Deal vocal and some Joey Santiago guitar magic followed and washed into the beautiful, lush pop of Here Comes Your Man. It’s about now I was again reminded of this record’s amazing consistency. I recall wearing out both vinyl and cassette versions and I reckon my CD will need replacing soon!

Next up was Dead the crazy song about Bathsheba and Uriah the Hittite, followed by the brilliant Monkey Gone to Heaven with the line everybody knows and loves (“if man is 5, if the devil is 6, then god is 7..”) and we were indeed in Pixies heaven. Mr. Grieves followed and then came a personal favourite Crackity Jones (“crack crack crackity jones, wup wup..”) with its mighty speed before we mellowed out with the magical La La Love You sung by David to an adoring throng. #13 Baby followed and There Goes My Gun before we hit paydirt again with the best song on the album (my opinion) Hey. It’s hard to say why this resonates so strongly – it’s definitely the lyrics, the chained refrain, the plaintive guitar, the “UH said the man to the lady” bit and the drumming – pretty much everything really! The haunting Silver came next and the set concluded with the pounding, grinding, throbbing, hairy bassline and guitar picking of Gouge Away. Awesome!

We could have gone home happy at that poi, but no, we got two encores! The first featured an acoustic Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf) followed by Into the White with the world’s most powerful smoke machine obscuring the band and half the audience. Once the smoke had cleared we were treated to a greatest/greater hits selection. Picking best songs is a bit like choosing between children but I have two favourite Pixies songs that have stood the test of time. The first is Bone Machine which had me in apoplexy – everything about this song is great. U-Mass is a little ripper that came next followed by Nimrod’s Son, the Spanish Isla De Encanta and then my second favourite, Where is My Mind? (“with your feet on the air and your head on the ground..”). I think I sang the Ooh, Ooh refrain all the way home! (Yes, he did – AW)

But wait there’s more and the band still managed a quickfire version of Vamos (“ Vamos a jugar por la playa” means “Let’s play on the beach” in case you were wondering!), before finishing with the traditional closer Gigantic (a big, big love) – as apt a description of this gig as you will get.