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Helping to establish the alt-rock sound of the late '80s and '90s, the Pixies have become an iconic act, influencing everyone from Nirvana, to Radiohead, to Weezer with their jagged-edged indie-rock.
Formed in Boston, US in 1986, the band was formed by Charles Thompson (vocals, guitar), later changing his name to Black Francis, alongside Joey Santiago (lead guitar), David Lovering (drums) and Kim Deal (bass). After playing at various local venues, the Pixies gained a support slot for Throwing Muses, which attracted the attention of producer Gary Smith. Offering to record the band, the result was an 18-song demo, "The Purple Tape," which impressed Ivo Watts of the UK label, 4AD, with Pixies soon joining their roster.
Their debut album, "Surfer Rosa," was released in 1988, featuring the engineering talents of Steve Albini, who had helped pioneer the abrasive sound which set the standard for alternative rock subsequently in his band, Big Black. The Pixies' debut found critical acclaim across the board, gaining significant airplay and soon resulting in a record deal with Elektra Records.
Retunring to the studio, this time with Gil Norton as producer, the band created what was to be their classic album. Released in 1989, Doolittle favored a cleaner, pop-tinged sound, finding several Top Ten hits in the process, particularly finding success in Britain. After extensive touring, the band decided to take a break in 1990, hoping to replenish the band's enthusiasm.
Following solo escapades by Black Francis, they returned to the studio in 1991 for their third release, "Bossanova," which garnered mixed reviews, favoring a surf rock sound. Nonetheless, the album faired well in the charts, prompting further successful tours and festival appearances. Returning to a loud rock sound as to their earlier efforts, their fourth record, "Trompe le Monde" again found praise, resulting in further international tours before another hiatus ensued.
Black Francis, just as he was about to release his solo debut, announced that the band had disbanded, prior to his band member's knowledge of this. The members of the Pixies continued with their various other projects to moderate success, whilst still being big names in the indie rock scene. Several re-issues and archival recordings were released during the late '90s and early '00s, continuing to maintain the band's reputation and popularity, despite the hiatus.
It was not until 2003 that hopes for a Pixies reunion surfaced, reuniting in a series of tours in the US in 2004. A live DVD soon followed to much anticipation, with the band continuing to tour intermittently throughout the rest of the decade. Yet in 2013, new music arrived, self-releasing "EP1" in July that year. Two further EPs were released, with these new recordings later compiled as the album, "Indie Cindy," in April 2014.
Read moreWednesday 31st October, the Roundhouse, London, Pixies. So its thirty years since Come on Pilgrim and Surfer Rosa were released and its night two of a six night residency at the Roundhouse celebrating this anniversary. Obviously, there’s no Kim Deal but Paz Lenchantin is an able replacement and has been part of the band for the past four years.
It’s a reasonably mixed audience but oldies like me who saw Pixies first time around probably edge it. These type of shows where a band perform the whole of an album are both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand you are hearing a classic album (certainly in the case of Surfer Rosa) in its entirety evoking those memories of when it was first released and that point in your life but then you miss the spontaneity of the unknown setlist as you know exactly what song is coming up next. And that is very much the dilemma tonight.
The show starts about thirty minutes before the band arrive on stage with a film about the iconic images associated with both albums followed by an esoteric visual/audio experience utilising the bank of screens around the stage. It probably outstays its welcome by 15 minutes and the crowd are a little impatient by the time band eventually come on stage.
With no fanfare the band launch straight into ‘Caribou’ with the rest of the ‘Come on Pilgrim’ EP quickly following like a grunge juggernaut powering along the rock highway with no brakes, stops or pauses. There is no interaction with the crowd, no fuss, no filler and then it’s the main course of the evening for what was a highly influential album for me and music as a whole in the late eighties, ‘Surfer Rosa’. From the opening riff of ‘Bone Machine’ it’s a note for note, word for word run through of this classic album including the ad libs and chats on the record.
Its breath taking relentless stuff and whilst my memory doesn’t serve me well in terms of what the energy of the band was like thirty years ago they proved tonight they can still rock. Franks voice still has that unique range and the supporting cast provide the necessary licks and drive to transport us back to 1988. A quick break and then its back on stage for a five song encore which given what came before seemed superfluous. (I note on future nights they segmented the two albums with the encore tracks and so ended on the high of ‘Surfer Rosa’.
It would be ridiculous to have a highlight given the material but the obvious ‘hits’ of ‘Gigantic’ and ‘where is my mind’ were excellent along with both versions of ‘Vamos’.
So on the whole I think the evening worked, the oldies enjoyed it and the youngsters experiencing probably their first taste of this iconic band lapped it up too. So ‘Doolittle’ next year anyone?
Until the next time keep on grunge rockin y’all
The technicians prepare the stage. The pedal set of Joey is really impressive, he needs himself a sheet of paper to remember all the set-ups.
The Pixies come on stage silently, without saying a word. From the first moment they give me the impression of being tired and without much energy to give to the audience.
Black Francis has grown in weight and wears a black dress.
Paz Lenchantin stands on the right side, she has a rose sticked to her bass and she is quite a humble figure. The same can be said of Joey Santiago, who is wearing a coppola cap and hardly interacts with the audience. Probably the most lively character on stage is David Lovering who does a great job in the rythmic part.
In the song Rock Music. It is almost impossible to hear Black Francis’ voice. Maybe there’s something wrong with the microphone and the sound levels. Maybe he just does not have any longer the voice for this type of song.
During this tour the band plays 11 of the songs from the new album Beneath the Eyrie, which are quite tame in my opinion.
Another choice I don’t understand is that they deliver most of their hits in the first part of their set, leading to a boring and empty second part.
They should have spread the hits more evenly throughout the set, to keep the audience awake.
All the classic are amazing and I can't resist from singing together with them.
Vamos is the longest song of the set and Joey finally pulls out some trick and plays a bit with the jack of his guitar waving it around and creating some noise.
At the end we are not even sure we will get an encore. Francis looks exhausted. The group plays a little scene on stage where Paz convinces the other to play one last song. Bone Machine.
Brilliant. I saw them last in 1989 and was so happy when my wife bought me a ticket to this gig for my 47th! The band played for around 2 hours and covered tunes from just about every album although i have to say i have barely listened to that orange one so wouldn't know if they played something from that mistake.
They transported me back to my youth for two hours even if as an auld cnut i just stood there either nodding my head back and forth or tapping my foot or, during more energetic moments, a combination of both. I really enjoying the performance far more than it showed, honest.
I was surprised to see so many what i thought were youngsters in the Tonhalle listening to a band who formed when many of them weren't even twinkles in the eyes of their hopeful padres, but their energy made up for my lack of. Thanks to them. I was even more surprised to see Mosh pit contributions by guys older than me. Respect. You energetic cnuts. Love it.
They played enough off the Surfa Rosa and Come on Pilgrim LPs that i went home a seriously happy man who hasn't stopped talking about and reliving the gig since.
So fucking good. I hope I'm alive when they play again here.
Pixies were a driving force in the alt-rock boom of the early 90's in America and their legacy and influence lives on in contemporary bands to this day. Their latest support act Royal Blood thank the band for the invite and explain that albums such as 'Surfer Rosa' had massive influence on their own sound.
From the grunge introduction of 'Bone Machine', the audience are ready to jump, cheer, sing and mosh with this iconic rock outfit and the band gives it everything on stage in return. A slick performance group, they blaze through a number of fan favourites before the audience even has chance to applaud in earth shaking volume. They thank their british audience profusely before beginning cult classic 'Monkey Gone to Heaven'.
They still inherit the qualities that makes so many young and emerging bands turn to Pixies during the beginnings of their careers. Despite having toured for close on 25 years, the stage show still has a very organic feel where the music is allowed to take centre stage without relying on visuals or pyrotechnics. The finale of 'Where Is My Mind?' remind the audience just how iconic Pixies really are.
Doors opened at 7:30 PM, around 8:30 PM the opening band, Public Access TV, started playing. It's an OK band.
Pixies started playing around 9:45PM. They started with "Where is my mind" and a couple more popular songs, then they went back to not so popular songs (not popular for no-fans) from the first albums, the mixed make-the-crowd-jump loud rock songs to some lets-take-a-break more melodic songs.
A weird thing I noticed was that Paz played two or three songs with his back to the public, at first I thought she was checking something with the sound but then realized she was playing like that on purpose. Nothing bad with, the music was still great.
They never stopped playing from start to finish, it was song after song, no talking to the public. The only interaction with the public was Joey doing a mini-solo on his guitar.
In general a very good concert, nothing like listen to them live.
The Pixies are just as relevant now as they were when they first started.
Black Francis is still the driving force of yesteryear and is supported by Joey Santiago (guitar), David Lovering (drums) and Paz Lenchantin (who replaced Kim Shattuck and in tun Kim Deal). While Black Francis is the focal point of any Pixies concert, the underpinning contributions of the other three are critical. This was always the case in the late 1990s and early 2000s when Black Francis was a solo artist.
Despite some good tunes he was never the same live without Joey and David to drive the sound. They are a powerful quartet with a tremendous back catalogue. The Pixies don't know how to deliver a bad concert. So go and see them and enjoy yourself.
A valuable lesson I learnt last night and that is never to look at a set list from a previous night's gig as you will most probably be disappointed.
Looking through the set list of the Pixies at Brixton on Monday night I was really excited for last night's performance, 32 massive songs played over 2 1/4 hours. Last night however couldn't have been more different with the only big tune the whole night being "Monkey Gone to Heaven".
Being a massive Pixies fan for some 30 years I have to say I was very disappointed indeed.
However, each song was played superbly and in quick fire mode with the only crowd interaction being when Black Francis apologised for messing up the same song twice, embarrassingly moving on to the next song
Charles "Black Francis" Thompson, David Lovering, Paz Lenchantin and Joey Santiago together all brought a great ear candy experience last night! From the moment I heard Thompson's warbling vocals filtering out the open front door as he sang the line "What's that floating in the water?" from 'Mr. Grieves' I knew the night was off to a great start! Together Thompson along with Lovering's backbeat, Lenchantin's furious bass work and call-and-answer style of vocal trade with Thompson, rounded off with Santiago's amazing guitar work, they tore through the perfect set list with many hits as well as rare gems mixed in!
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I have wanted to see Pixies since 1992ish but never had the chance until now. The Opening band Royal Blood was amazing for a 2 piece band! Pixies had some sound issues at first where we could not hear the vocals at all, about halfway through the set the sound improved & also started playing some of their older more recognizable songs. Once that happened the show went on amazingly. I am happy to have seen them. The venue (Shaw center, Edmonton, AB) was nice because you could stand or sit if you preferred.
Pixies will be performing near you at The Anthem on Friday 25 July 2025 as part of their tour, and are scheduled to play 55 concerts across 11 countries in 2024-2025. View all concerts.
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