The Breeders - London Astoria - 1/6/02
4/5
By: Toby L
'This next song's gonna be five minutes long,' warns Kim Deal, continuing cautiously, 'And it's slow.'
The reason why the exceptionally chirpy front-woman of The Breeders finds it necessary to announce such a statement is because her band's set is otherwise plagued by a cacophony of happy guitar-pop golden nuggets, each tune full of the kind of energy that's - comparatively - ample enough to reignite the career of even troubled icon Michael Jackson. Yet, whereas el Jacko himself fell short in his career by providing just too much of the same thing, The Breeders steer well clear of such a problem by creating songs that are just different enough from each other so as to not take the piss, and throw in the odd weird one here and there, which stand out quite splendidly.
In this case, returning to Deal's introduction of such a track, the peculiar song they offer is a spine-tinglingly downbeat 'Off You', just one of the standout moments from their current LP, the excellent 'Title TK'. Magnificently providing the best musical juxtaposition for years, the US five-piece then follow this by storming into their classic 'Cannonball', whose energised instrumental parts which build up throughout are greeted individually by roars from the crowd, many audience-members incidentally from the US, having travelled across the pond to witness their heroes in such an atmosphere. These highlights are provided only mid-set, but - so strong is the band's repertoire - your eyes and ears will be perplexed, intrigued and overwhelmed for almost an hour and a half - and, even by the time they leave, you'll still be calling for more.
Where The Breeders triumph particularly, aside from the quality and immediacy of their melodic and upbeat numbers, is through the persona they portray whilst delivering such moments. Take the informality of setting up their equipment on the stage tonight, for example; despite this being a sold-out, 2,000-capacity theatre, plus roadies and techies being of the essence, just minutes before their early onstage arrival-time of 8:30pm, Kim herself arrives to check the instruments, triggering a premature burst of audience-applause. She smiles graciously, disappears for a few seconds, soon returning with her sister Kelley, the band following moments later, and the crowd-reaction is still insane. Even their first encore-break suffers from such openness - the band hover behind their amps and at the sides of the performance-area, as opposed to truly going away. As a result, a rare rapport between the group and audience is achieved - and it's quite endearing as a matter of fact.
Also, if you've ever wanted to witness just what fuels the fire of The Breeders, just see what the sisters light in between every tune - yes, relentlessly unhealthy myriads of cigarettes. Aside from this, their sense of humour must help their appeal even further - particularly demonstrated when addressing the imminent British Golden Jubilee ('Why aren't you guys at Buckingham Palace having tea with the Queen,' inquires the singer in a mock naivety), as well as the band's opinions of their fans as the lights in the venue become brighter ('Some of these cats are f**king ugly!'), not to mention the venue they're playing tonight, asking us all if anyone's staying after their show to hang around in the Astoria's ensuing gay-club. Their subsequent lesbian joke after this falls flat on its face, however.
But, aside from such amusing musings, the music thrives, particularly in the newer compositions, such as the mid-tempo 'Little Fury', infectious (hmm, after a few hearings anyway) 'Huffer', manic 'Full On Idle' and sassy 'Too Alive', not to mention the eerie 'The She', where our star-lady rolls up her left trouser-leg, proceeding to play a bass-drum and snare throughout. As if such efforts weren't enough, you also get the self-confessed 'vocal stylings' of Kelley singing 'Last Splash's 'I Just Wanna Get Along', an awe-inspiringly tight and accurate rendition of the 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' TV- theme, and a show-closing track sung by guitarist Richard Presley, who professes that it's dedicated to all of us, his 'close friends', despite its 'I don't care about you, f**k you' chorus suggesting otherwise.
The Breeders may have been out of the limelight for quite some time. But they're back now. And this ain't a subtle return. Prepare to be slain.
Artists in this article: The Breeders
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