The Pixies-Live!

“I was trying to write the ultimate pop song. I was basically trying to rip off The Pixies.”

-Kurt Cobain on Smells Like Teen Spirit

Someone at work asked me the other day who my favorite band is. I couldn't think of one on the spot like that. After reflecting on that question, I can say that my favorite band is The Pixies. They played at my favorite place to see music, The State Theater, on 10/11. I remember when the show was announced. I wasn't crazy to get tickets because Megan and I saw them the last time they were here playing the Doolittle album at Roy Wilkins in 2011. 

Then I learned that she would be out of the house with Ozzie on the night of the show. I started looking at tickets by owner on Craigslist. I didn't know how lucky I'd be finding just one ticket for sale, but there was one for $75. I emailed the guy saying that if it comes down to the day of the show and there's no interest, I'd offer him $40 so he won't have to eat the ticket. 

I got some money for my birthday (10/1) that's been burning a hole in my pocket, and this was a great opportunity to spend it. The guy emailed me 10/10 saying that he can't go lower than $50. I took him up on it. It was worth the extra $10 to know that I'd have a main floor seat for the show. I texted him as I was walking to the theater from the parking ramp, and he met me in the lobby. He told me that he was wearing glasses and a black shirt. I found him, but he should have said "I'm the guy who looks exactly like a 25-year-old Vince Gilligan. Exactly." 

Vince junior's girlfriend couldn't come to the show, so that's why he sold his ticket. That also meant that we sat next to each other. He was a really nice guy. He liked the same music as me, and was even at the last show I went to at The State: Spoon. We chatted about music between the opener, Royal Blood, and the start of the real show. The Pixies took the stage at 8:40. 

Frank Black, Joey Santiago, David Lovering, and Kim De… Wait. Kim's not with them on this tour. In her place was a woman named Paz Lenchantin. Let's call her what she really is. Not Kim Deal. Deal's absence was another reason I didn't jump on tickets right away when they went on sale. Kim Deal is The Pixies bassist, and anyone else has enormous shoes to fill. 

The show opened with Ed Is Dead. I wished everything was a little louder during the 1st song. It was plenty loud, but it was at about 9 and could have been turned up to 11. The 2nd song was Nimrod's Son with a reggae style second half of the song. As the show went on, the music got louder, and was at 11 about halfway through the 95 minute set. It was so loud, in fact, that the instruments sounded distorted. 

This tour is in support of the Pixies latest album, Indie Cindy. They mixed in newer material with classics. The new album as okay, but I'm probably biased knowing the older catalogue  so well. Anything new is going to take some getting used to. I craved some stage banter from Black, but there was none. He never addressed the crowd. 

Left to right: Santiago, Black, Lovering, Not Kim

The Pixies wrapped up their set with Hey, and came back for a 2-song encore of Debaser and Planet of Sound. (See the full 32-song setlist here) The encore. When can we do away with this stupid ritual? They were off-stage for about 60 seconds before coming back for their encore. Fiona Apple did a great thing when I saw her in 2012. She reached the end of her set and said something like she thinks "encores" are silly "so pretend that I left, and came back, and this is the rest of the show." That was classy.

As for Not Kim's performance; I wanted to not like her. Like if your parents get divorced, and your dad starts seeing a new woman. But what if you can't find a reason to hate her? That's how I felt about Not Kim. Her hair covered her face most of the time, but The Pixies aren't known for the "show" they put on. (I even heard that the last "Not Kim," who was actually named Kim, did a stage dive at a gig and that's what got her bounced from the band.) The Not Kim I saw tonight was efficient and sounded good on her backing vocals. 

Driving home I felt happy about the expenditure of my birthday money. If Vince Gilligan Jr. hadn't come through, there were scalpers out front who told me that they were taking $20 for tickets. I'll pretend that they were all in the back row of the balcony. This was a great seat in a great venue watching rock and roll legends. 

P.S. Do you like my reviews? This is a crazy idea, but if some kid can get over $55,000 to make potato salad, I thought it couldn't hurt to throw this out there. 

Can't make it to a show you want to see? Any show. Music, movie, play, etc. Buy my ticket and I'll go and write a review of it.  If you're interested you can PM me, or leave a comment below.