Pixies at The Forum

Unsurprisingly, this is a sold-out gig which meant you needed to get there very early to stand a chance of having a view and/or good sound. Unfortunately, I wasn’t there early enough so my review is based on what I could hear and bits of what I was able to see on the screens placed either side of the stage. At precisely 9 pm, the ground-breaking alternative band pick up their instruments and blast out Wave of Mutilation from the seminal album Doolittle, which makes another appearance towards the end of the 37-song set except the latter performance is the mellow UK Surf version.

The swathes of people are singing along with rapture, noting a number of younger people in the audience with their parents who are clearly doing a fine job in passing on the baton of good quality music. Despite the tour being in support of their latest album, Doggerel, Pixies carry on with their back catalogue including River Euphrates that illustrates Black Francis still possesses a powerful raucous vocal range that he can switch to in a beat whilst Paz Lenchantin’s feminine line cuts through creating a crafted dissonance. Human Crime has a classic Pixies feel with a catchy chorus that could have been released at any point over the past 35 years ago.

A strength of the Pixies material is that it ages well meaning the release of new material meshes seamlessly with new releases as is their ability to churn out a classic cover. Pixies reworking of The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Head On provides a short intense track that reminds me of Dinosaur Jr’s version of The Cure’s Just Like A Heaven; a respectful tilt of the hat whilst maintaining the emotion. This is similarly shown with their final song, a cover of Neil Young’s Winterlong, reducing the track down to a 3 minute, vocally harmonious piece that has become a staple part of their set.

David Lovering’s drumming throughout is immense but it comes into its own during Isla De Encanta with its precise stops and erratic entrances. Absolutely glorious musicianship shown by all four players who deliver the punk essence of the song with meticulousness and producing a highlight of the set. Following on, they unleash the concise Broken Face where Black Francis cleverly uses his vocals as an additional instrument with his high-pitched squeal. Vault of Heaven is the first of a trio of tracks from Doggerel to arrive in the set and the vocals work magnificently but there is a distinct lack of weight to Lenchantin’s bass which leaves the song lacking. Prior to an unexpected interval due to technical issues, Pixies understated alternative college radio hit, Here Comes Your Man, spills out across the venue; you can barely hear the band with the volume of audience participation of such an upbeat joyous number.

When the band return to the stage, they replay Ana as Black Francis was disappointed in their initial rendition which had flagged up issues aligning the vocal harmonies. Second time round, Ana was en pointe. With the angular repetitive guitar motif of Break My Body and the strange timing of guitar and drums in Vamos are lessons in how to write music that breaks the rules of classic chord progression to maximum effect and illustrate how innovative Surfer Rosa was as an album. This is in contrast to their latest songs that follow, such as Thunder and Lighting or The Lord Has Come Back Today which are far less musically controversial and at times I find my interest waning during their performance, possibly due to lack of familiarity.

But it is the superb bassline of Debaser that sees the whole auditorium move en masse, many of us reminiscing about dancing within this same building on a Saturday night when it was The Hummingbird. The communal singing continues with the opening spoken word of Hey and you get a sense that the set is heading to its finale, with the superb guitar playing of Joey Santiago who has utilised a guitar to its fullest potential and range of sounds and noise. Moving from Hey into the spoken word of Doggerel illustrates the considered nature of their lengthy set list which knows when to bring out the haunting backing vocals of Where Is My Mind? This is certainly the track that receives the most intense reception and would have been a suitable end but that would be conventional and not at all in line with the Pixies essence. So it is the Neil Young cover that completes the two hour set.

Set list:
Wave of Mutilation
River Euphrates
Human Crime
Head On
Isla De Encanta
Broken Face
Crackity Jones
Planet of Sound
Vault of Heaven
Who’s More Sorry Now?
Haunted House
Get Simulated
Ana
Death Horizon
All the Saints
Here Comes Your Man
Ana
Mr Grieves
Brick is Red
Break My Body
The Holiday Song
Vamos
Motorway to Roswell
Thunder and Lightning
The Lord Has Come Back Today
There’s A Moon On
Gouge Away
Debaser
I’ve Been Tired
Hey
Doggerel
Nomatterday
Caribou
Wave of Mutilation
Where Is My Mind?
Winterlong

Review: Toni Woodward

Photographs: Andra Tudoran

 

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