'Scream it like you hate that bitch'
I am filled with the joy of music at the moment. What a week it's been... and Wednesday night was the best of the lot.
I must admit when I left work the last thing I wanted to do was travel right across London to my old manor of Wood Green... it's a good 2 hour journey for me... and even during the support act The Futureheads I didn't feel like I entirely wanted to be there. I don't rate them much anyway and their set didn't inspire me to change my mind...
As soon as The Pixies arrived on stage though, I was a man transformed. The primal screams emitting from Black Francis' throat, the wall of noise, the frenzied reaction of the audience, just the sight of Kim Deal (although sadly on the other side of the stage from me). All my misgivings about the band's seemingly endless cash-in reunion tour (just how many double live CDs does one band actually need? There must have been well over 100 produced since they reformed by my reckoning) vanished in an instant. I was 'In Heaven'.
It's the third time i've seen The Pixies.. the first was at Crystal Palace Bowl (with Ride, Cud and the Boo Radleys) in 1991, when I was just out of short trousers. I couldn't get tickets for the reunion shows in Brixton last year, but instead went over to Barcelona to the Primavera festival. Unfortunately the Catalans seemed to have more interest in standing around making sure their hair looked good then worshipping the return of one of the world's greatest bands. I was a one-man mosh pit.
Last night though, oh last night. Well if the overuse of words such as amazing, incredible, brilliant, fantastic, excellent and superb on this site gets under your skin, i'm afraid you're going to have to grit your teeth & ride through it, as it was all those things and more.
The set was hugely geared towards their early albums - I can only remember 'Is She Weird' and 'Planet of Sound' from their last two records, and I'm sure they played every track bar Tony's Theme from 'Surfer Rosa', and pretty much everything from 'Come on Pilgrim' and 'Doolittle' also. In short, the kind of set you would want if you wanted to see the band at their best. 'U-Mass' and 'Velouria' were probably the only things they could have played to improve it.
It's still hard to see Black Francis / Frank Black / Charles Michael Kitteridge Thompson IV as a rock star. Certainly in a line-up with Iggy Pop, Axl Rose, Slash and even Jon Bon Jovi he would be fingered 999 times out of 1000 as the odd one out.. Even screaming out tales of incest, drowning, murder and slicing up eyeballs he looks like he's taken the wrong turn on the way to the bakery.. but my god that voice is one of the most remarkable in rock music.. and those songs. Wow. It was unrelenting delerium for the entire hour and a half. No pause for breath or pleasantries in between...
I'd like to write more, but i'm off to watch Wycombe (hopefully) beat Northampton, and i'm late. Suffice to say it was a wonderful, sweaty, breathless, exhausting, magical night.
Have a fun weekend
I must admit when I left work the last thing I wanted to do was travel right across London to my old manor of Wood Green... it's a good 2 hour journey for me... and even during the support act The Futureheads I didn't feel like I entirely wanted to be there. I don't rate them much anyway and their set didn't inspire me to change my mind...
As soon as The Pixies arrived on stage though, I was a man transformed. The primal screams emitting from Black Francis' throat, the wall of noise, the frenzied reaction of the audience, just the sight of Kim Deal (although sadly on the other side of the stage from me). All my misgivings about the band's seemingly endless cash-in reunion tour (just how many double live CDs does one band actually need? There must have been well over 100 produced since they reformed by my reckoning) vanished in an instant. I was 'In Heaven'.
It's the third time i've seen The Pixies.. the first was at Crystal Palace Bowl (with Ride, Cud and the Boo Radleys) in 1991, when I was just out of short trousers. I couldn't get tickets for the reunion shows in Brixton last year, but instead went over to Barcelona to the Primavera festival. Unfortunately the Catalans seemed to have more interest in standing around making sure their hair looked good then worshipping the return of one of the world's greatest bands. I was a one-man mosh pit.
Last night though, oh last night. Well if the overuse of words such as amazing, incredible, brilliant, fantastic, excellent and superb on this site gets under your skin, i'm afraid you're going to have to grit your teeth & ride through it, as it was all those things and more.
The set was hugely geared towards their early albums - I can only remember 'Is She Weird' and 'Planet of Sound' from their last two records, and I'm sure they played every track bar Tony's Theme from 'Surfer Rosa', and pretty much everything from 'Come on Pilgrim' and 'Doolittle' also. In short, the kind of set you would want if you wanted to see the band at their best. 'U-Mass' and 'Velouria' were probably the only things they could have played to improve it.
It's still hard to see Black Francis / Frank Black / Charles Michael Kitteridge Thompson IV as a rock star. Certainly in a line-up with Iggy Pop, Axl Rose, Slash and even Jon Bon Jovi he would be fingered 999 times out of 1000 as the odd one out.. Even screaming out tales of incest, drowning, murder and slicing up eyeballs he looks like he's taken the wrong turn on the way to the bakery.. but my god that voice is one of the most remarkable in rock music.. and those songs. Wow. It was unrelenting delerium for the entire hour and a half. No pause for breath or pleasantries in between...
I'd like to write more, but i'm off to watch Wycombe (hopefully) beat Northampton, and i'm late. Suffice to say it was a wonderful, sweaty, breathless, exhausting, magical night.
Have a fun weekend
posted by headphonesex @ 7:03 PM
