Pixies - Village Underground Gallery, East London - 15/6/09
5/5
By: Thomas Hannan
What just happened? I'm pretty sure last night Kim Deal came up to a group of myself and my friends, in an art gallery in Shoreditch, and said "hey, do you guys know any of our songs?". And then we reeled off a list of our favourites ('Dig For Fire', 'Hey', 'Gigantic', the surf version of 'Wave of Mutilation'...). And then they played them for us.
[BLACK FRANCIS/FRANK BLACK/CHARLES THOMPSON IV]
I know that's exactly what happened and yet I don't think the enormity of it will settle in for a while yet. There was a time when I thought getting to see the Pixies was genuinely as likely as seeing Nirvana (and arguably preferable). Now Kim's written 'Dig For Fire' on a setlist, at my request. And, in attempt to ensure that nobody in this invite only/competition winner crowd leaves thinking that she is anything other than the single coolest person on the planet, she's going round the rest of the audience finding out from them what they want to hear too. "Hey, do you guys know any of our songs?", she starts again. "Yes Kim, we know all of your songs", thinks the indie girl. 'Bone Machine'. Nice choice.
[KIM DEAL]
Kim Deal, Black Francis/Frank Black/Charles Thompson IV, Joseph Alberto Santiago and David Lovering are on great, great form tonight. The first time I saw the Pixies, in 2004 at Brixton Academy, they didn't even talk to each other, let alone the crowd. At the time, I thought the night was a pretty blissful, celebratory occasion. But in retrospect, there was a coldness there, a reluctance to engage with one another or their assembled throng of fans. Put it down to nerves, tensions between band members, whatever. Tonight, they can't stop nattering. Black Francis/Frank Black/Charles Thompson IV playfully bullies Kim in to playing two songs she doesn't even want to play ('Gigantic' and 'In To The White') back to back. She completely fluffs the bass line for the requested surf version of 'Wave of Mutilation' by starting it in entirely the wrong key. Black Francis/Frank Black/Charles Thompson IV - a man who, let's not forget, once forcefully threw a guitar in anger at Kim Deal on stage, and sacked her from the band by sending her a fax - smiles gleefully, and jokes about how she's "always getting kicked off of that game Rock Band, you know that game?".
[ARTWORK BY VAUGHN OLIVER & SIMON LARBALESTIER]
And they're literally reading the set list from the requests they wrote down before the show - other than 'Debaser', which Joey Santiago just felt like playing. They play for about an hour, and smile for all of it. They don't need to do this - it's a hassle for them to be here. They played the Isle of Wight festival the previous night to a trillion people, broadcast live on national television. There are but a few hundred of us here. They're going home in the morning. Tonight is an art exhibition first and foremost, to celebrate Vaughn Oliver's work on their new, ridiculous but oh my God I want one box set Minotaur. He's a good friend of theirs. Insipid though it sounds, the great thing about this show was it felt like we all were.
SETLIST: Where Is My Mind? / Hey / No. 13 Baby / Monkey Gone To Heaven / U-Mass / Debaser / Tame / Gigantic / Into The White / Planet of Sound / Dig For Fire / Bone Machine / Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf)
The stills in the article are from Rockfeedback TV's footage of the show. We filmed the whole set, along with interviews with every band member, art director Vaughn Oliver and photographer Simon Larbalestier, for a film you'll be able to stream from our very site when it's mammoth re-design is complete - imminently...
Artists in this article: Pixies, The Breeders
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