Pixies
Liberty Hall, Moore Park
November 20
Reviewed by GEORGE PALATHINGAL
★★★½
We’ve had the soaring highs of finally experiencing the original line-up on Australian shores on their triumphant, festival-headlining 2007 reunion tour, and the lesser highs of subsequently seeing them without bass player and crucial second singer Kim Deal in venues both traditional and impressive since.
Rarely, however, have we got to see Boston alt-/art-rock mould-breakers the Pixies playing a full, fan-thrilling set in a room this cosy (capacity: 1200). On top of that, the night before their official duties on this visit – of opening for Pearl Jam at stadiums – they fire into proceedings in a way few might have expected.
Black Francis can still access his demented shriek and unsettlingly sweet falsetto.Credit: Simone Gorman-Clark
You can almost hear the crash of jaws on the floor when they open with Where Is My Mind?, get to its fellow would-be encore no-brainer Here Comes Your Man a couple of tunes later, and go on to let more from that late ’80s/early ‘90s creative peak dominate the set. (They play only a handful of new songs from this year’s The Night the Zombies Came. Tellingly, their other post-reunion output is ignored.)
Black Francis’ voice has deepened with age, but he can still access his demented shriek and unsettlingly sweet falsetto. He’s true to an early gag that “we don’t have a lot of dance moves, all we’ve got is some songs”, and the whole band focus on their jobs accordingly.
Joey Santiago alternates between squealing riffs and flat-out guitar abuse (though we eventually see some of his playful side during Vamos) and David Lovering is the unshowy but effective drummer at the back. Emma Richardson, formerly of Brit rockers Band of Skulls, takes on Kim Deal’s distinctive bass lines and backing vocals admirably.
Yet the middle part of the show, where these Pixies indulge themselves in their idiosyncrasies and eccentricities, goes on a little too long. Some of it is deliciously weird – even the dreaded (but actually OK) new songs – there’s just too much of it, and it dulls the mood.
The band are back this time next year for a couple of shows across the road at the much bigger Hordern Pavilion: one in which they’ll play in full lesser albums Bossanova (1990) and Trompe Le Monde (1991), the other featuring new stuff and classics – which sounds a bit more like this one.
There, at least, a little judicious editing might make up for the loss of intimacy.
Pixies open for Pearl Jam at Engie Stadium, Olympic Park, on November 21 and 23.