tonyballinger.com

I love The Pixies. I love every album, and nearly every song. The only other band that I have the same kind of love for would be Talking Heads. So it was a pretty big deal for me when they reunited to tour this year. A big enough deal that this summer I went to seem in the desert.

And this show was even better than that show.

The setlist was fantastic. They played every song I wanted to hear, with the exception of "Hang Wire". They played "Broken Face". They played "Something Against You". They played "Caribou" as well as "Vamos". They played nearly everything.

They’re playing as well as they did when I was in high school, and it looks like they’re having fun doing it. Kim laughs a lot on stage, and there’s friendly chatter between songs.

It’s hard to explain the allure of The Pixies to people who aren’t a fan. Is it Black Francis’ random screaming during songs? Is it the occasional song sung entirely in Spanish? Is it the dadaist lyrics? Is it the switching of genres – from alternative, to punk, to surf rock?

It’s all those things and so much more. Between seeing the Pixies up close, and seeing Brian Eno speak in NY – this may be the best year of my life.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 14th, 2004 at 9:29 pm and is filed under Concerts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.