| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Ten Percenter |
Posted - 06/08/2004 : 04:07:14
Apologies if this has already been posted, another very positive review by Kitty Empire:
It is usually advisable to avoid reunions, but the Pixies' first
British gig for more than 10 years triumphantly destroyed that notion
Kitty Empire
Sunday June 6, 2004
The Observer
The Pixies
Brixton Academy, London SW9
Before the Pixies have even plucked out a bass line or screamed a
note, the cheers welcoming them out of history and into the present
reach a deafening pitch. A pink wheat field of raised arms greets
singer Black Francis (born Charles Thompson), bassist Kim Deal,
guitarist Joey Santiago and drummer Dave Lovering as they file on to
a London stage for the first time in more than a decade. Only Deal
has much hair left.
Lovering, now a stage magician, takes pictures of the crowd. You can
almost believe that the love his band unleashes tonight will appear
in the shots as a visible paranormal blur when they are developed.
Twenty minutes after the end of the encore, with the house lights up
and roadies throwing covers on to the drumkit, a third of the
audience still refuses to budge, howling and clapping for more.
If ever a band were justified in reforming, it is the Pixies. They
are substantially more popular now than they were in their prime,
selling out four nights at Brixton Academy in minutes, and
undertaking similar victory marches around the US and Europe.
Significantly, the crowd tonight is not made up exclusively of teary-
eyed thirtysomethings missing Hell's Kitchen for a nostalgic mosh
to 'Gigantic'.
The Pixies' celebrants include mohicaned punks vomiting in corners
and teenagers curious to see if they live up to all the fuss. For all
this, the Pixies are still a marvellously contrary group: Black
Francis chose Minneapolis over LA or New York as the venue for the
band's first comeback gig in mid-April. They have refused all
interview requests.
The Pixies' memory has survived uncommonly well, thanks in part to
the enduring influence of Nirvana. Kurt Cobain openly acknowledged
his band's debt to the Pixies, which lay most obviously in the
contrast of quiet verses and loud choruses. But where Nirvana went on
to hit paydirt with the formula, the Pixies missed out on the
financial rewards reaped by many lesser bands when the US underground
went overground in the Nineties.
Francis has openly admitted they agreed to reform for the money. But
few would begrudge the Pixies this payday: if ever a band deserved a
late nest egg in recognition of their excellence, it is this unlikely
Boston foursome. They left behind a body of work as unnerving and
compelling as it is tuneful and justly revered.
They revisit a great deal of it tonight, at the blood-quickening
speed of 23 tracks per hour. It's always exciting when bands don't
stop between songs (the White Stripes are probably the best current
exponents of the art). When it's a band of advancing years whose
musical telepathy has been eroded by a full decade of resentment,
segueing one song into the next, as the Pixies do for much of their
set, is an especially impressive feat.
They begin with a cover of Neil Young's 'Winterlong'. Touchingly, it
unites the voices of Francis and Deal, the Pixies who have travelled
furthest in burying their differences. Deal emerged from under his
wing to become a brilliant songwriter in her own right, and her
success with her own band, the Breeders, contributed in no small part
to the Pixies' demise.
The crazed gallop of 'Nimrod's Son' quickly overtakes 'Winterlong',
mutating seamlessly into 'The Holiday Song' before resolving
into 'Here Comes Your Man' and so on. It's head-spinning stuff, not
least because the Pixies still sound genuinely fearsome. It's a
massive relief to hear that they are not a band content merely to
churn out some old songs as a means to a pay cheque.
The band's breadth is still staggering, too. One minute, Francis is
in 'Nimrod' mode, taunting: 'You are the son of a motherfucker! You
are the son of incestuous union!'; the next, he and Deal are crooning
together the deceptively sweet chorus to 'Here Comes Your Man', one
of the band's most accessible singles.
Throughout their hour-long set and three-song encore, the Pixies
continue to alternate between giddy pop heights and more feverish
missives. Heroically, they concentrate on their first three records,
where Francis's disturbed lyrical imagination and his band's restless
musicianship were at their peak.
The highlights come when the Pixies unload some of their most
deranged baggage. 'Vamos' sounds enduringly manic: beginning with
gabbled nonsense Spanish and climaxing in a guitar solo (of sorts)
where Joey Santiago, the band's unsung guitar hero, plays his effects
pedals in an intoxicating display of dissonance. 'Gouge Away' is
enduringly nasty, with Santiago's cranking guitar and Francis's
bedevilled screams emphasising the Pixies' dark side.
The awesome punk screech of 'Something Against You' makes plain the
band's debt to the malevolence of hardcore. 'Cactus' sounds even more
unhealthy now than it did in 1988, when Francis first sang: 'Bloody
your hands on a cactus tree/ Wipe it on your dress and send it to me'
in a lust-weakened yelp.
The crowd-pleasers are no less welcome, though. 'Monkey Gone to
Heaven', a melancholic lullaby of a tune, still inspires hand
signals. 'If man is five, then the devil is six, then God is seven,'
notes Francis: most of the moshpit hold up the correct number of
fingers. We get 'Wave of Mutilation' at both its speeds, and a
perfect version of the Pixies' theme tune, 'Debaser'. If anything,
Deal's totemic song, 'Gigantic', comes as a something of an
anticlimax in the encore: that is to say, only half of the audience
members are bouncing around ecstatically.
Reunions are so often a travesty motivated by cynicism and fuelled by
nostalgia. I refused on principle to see the re-formed Velvet
Underground and the reunited Sex Pistols. But the Pixies' might is
undiminished - by age, girth, time or dishonesty.
"Fried food, cigarettes, no exercise, chest pain..." (Excerpt from the Angina Monologues) |
| 8 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| jo |
Posted - 06/08/2004 : 23:57:02
quote:
Originally posted by benji
oh dear Jo, Hell's Kitchen....
i took you more as a big brother kind of gal.....
god no!! Not unless it's N list celebs, then it's funny...
ha, thanks cheeseman :) I have a full head of purpley hair actually :) |
| Stuart |
Posted - 06/08/2004 : 17:55:22
Man, the reunion has been a long time coming.... I was against it about a year ago, but now I really want them to stay together and release a new album... they were so fucking good on 3rd June!
Just the good ole boys, never meaning no harm,
that all you ever saw
been in trouble with the law,
since the day they were born |
| Cheeseman1000 |
Posted - 06/08/2004 : 10:30:12
quote:
Originally posted by jo
hmm "Significantly, the crowd tonight is not made up exclusively of teary-
eyed thirtysomethings missing Hell's Kitchen for a nostalgic mosh
to 'Gigantic'."
nope, that was me on Thursday. I can't deny it.
I thought you were the mohicaned punk vomiting in the corner...
 "It's a far cry from small boys in the park, jumpers for goalposts. Isn't it? Mmmmm. Marvellous." |
| benji |
Posted - 06/08/2004 : 10:25:11
oh dear Jo, Hell's Kitchen....
i took you more as a big brother kind of gal.....
but yeah, a very insitefull review and obviously written by a true fan - but still the obligatory nirvana reference.
and cheers, thing....an idiot i am.
 You Know You Want To! |
| jo |
Posted - 06/08/2004 : 09:52:34
hmm "Significantly, the crowd tonight is not made up exclusively of teary-
eyed thirtysomethings missing Hell's Kitchen for a nostalgic mosh
to 'Gigantic'."
nope, that was me on Thursday. I can't deny it. |
| Ziggy |
Posted - 06/08/2004 : 09:20:18
There was a pretty good photo accompanying the piece too.
"Me and the chickens running in the street" |
| the thing |
Posted - 06/08/2004 : 09:15:25
That is probably the best review I've read so far of the Brixton stuff certainly.
Benji - put http:// before the www in your sig and you should get cartman back...
 How does lemur fur, reflect the sea? Someone should do tests |
| benji |
Posted - 06/08/2004 : 08:32:42
great review.
pretty much sums up my feelings of the night....
 You Know You Want To! |
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