PIXIES – LIVE AT COLLEGE STREET MUSIC HALL

After wrapping up a six week headlining tour, seminal rock band Pixies played an up close and personal appearance on December 10th at College Street Music Hall. Since there were only seven slated dates in North America, Pixies wanted to make each one something special. So they decided to modify the set list for each show drawing from the 90 plus songs they rehearsed from their extensive repertoire. Each show was unique and specially tailored for the night.

Opening act, Kristin Hersh, was well familiar with the Pixies. Hersh was a founding member of Throwing Muses who have toured with the Pixies in the past. Playing guitar and singing lead vocals, Hersh’s musical style compliments the Pixies extremely well due to her use of soft vocals leading to crescendos and passionate wails. Her latest record, Possible Dust Clouds (Fire Records), was released in 2018.

Hersh’s 8 song set relied mainly from her aforementioned album and 2010’s Crooked. Her first song was “LAX”, a well received eerie rocker. Hersh’s vocals were both powerful and fierce and her band tight. Next came the Throwing Muses song, “Sunray Venus”, an intense bluesy tune with raw vocals and hypnotic guitar. “Mississippi Kite” and “No Shade In Shadow” followed. “Mississippi Kite” with visceral lyrics and tense vibe and “No Shade In Shadow” a psychedelically brash song drew enthusiastic audience reactions. Hersh closed with “Crooked” and “Broke” by another Kristin Hersh entity, 50 Foot Wave.

Hersh’s set was intimate and intense and received rousing approval from the large crowd.

The Pixies‘ sound defies categorization. They easily morph between punk and surf rock with smatterings of country, blues and pop. They are purveyors of the “loud-quiet” style of music with drastic shifts in tempo and song structure. Their lyrics range from the traditional to the absurd with such subject matter as incest and extraterrestrials. The Pixies were a major influence to a diverse group of artists such as Nirvana and Radiohead.

When the current line-up of Black Francis, Joey Santiago, David Lovering and Paz Lenchantin (who replaced both Kim Deal and Kim Shattuck) hit the stage the congregation gave out a large shout of appreciation. This is what they came for. Everyone could see that the band was pumped. They felt the energy in the room. The night was to be momentous.

I usually try to review as many of the songs played at each of the show I attend but the Pixies‘ set was enormous. The 31 songs they played spanned the expanse of their entire discography. I’m going to condense the set list as best I can without losing the flavor of the evening.

They opened with The Surftones’ cover “Cecelia Ann” and immediately followed with “St. Nazaire” from their latest release, Beneath the Eyrie (BMG/Infectious Records). Black Francis’ voice was forceful and full of angst and passion. Joey Santiago’s guitar robust and surf-like. The back beat of Lenchantin and Lovering was thunderous. The audience threw themselves totally into the rush. Next up came “Brick Is Red” and Broken Face” from Surfer Rosa. Even though both songs were released in 1988 they still felt new and relevant. The punkish “Gouge Away” from Doolittle and the pop/punk song from “Rosa”, “Bone Machine” followed.

The Pixies switched styles and tempos throughout their set. From the smooth rambling of “Hey” to the dynamic “On Graveyard Hill” and the new wave sensibilities of “Catfish Kate” There were many other highlights performed in the middle portion of their set including “In The Arms of Mrs Mark of Cain” and the frantic “Vamos”.

The last portion of the show was extraordinary starting with their big hit, “Here Comes Your Man”. From there the Pixies went into “Wave of Mutilation” and the Neil Young cover “Winterlong”. Then the Pixies offered up delirious renditions of “Crackity Jones” and “Mr Grieves”. They closed out with the countrified “Ready for Love” and the dark “Silver Bullet” both from Beneath the Eyrie.

The Pixies gave the audience at College street an early Christmas present. I don’t think the world will ever witness another historic offering of live Pixies‘ song. The band played their hearts out to an amazing group of ecstatic and adoring fans. I hope the other six shows on the tour went as well.

The Pixies are a durable lot with a tenacious catalogue and steady stream of new music. That’s what makes them such a fundamentally important band in the history of music.

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