deciBlog//2005.06.14//PIXIES

Jean & I went to see the Pixies at the “Disco Rodeo” (lamé rename of the Ritz) in Raleighwood Sunday night.
The opening act, the Bellrays, were crankin’. They’re like a cross between Mothers Finest & the Ramones.

Bellrays

A sold out & very incredibly fired up crowd. Average age ~35. This crowd was so fired up they were screaming out the lyrics of obscure songs like “Bone Machine” right & left. The band was beaming (& drinking St. Pauli Girls) throughout. Since they reformed over a year ago they’ve played a ton of shows & it’s apparent in how tight they are. Everybody was bald except Kim Deal (who smoked a ton o’ butts). They unravelled during “Bone Machine” & laughed. Frank Black (or is it Black Francis) said, “We’ve played that song 500 times & we’ve never f***ed it up”
Lots of tunes from Doolitle: Wave Of Mutilation (2 versions- slow acoustic & fast electric), of course Monkey Gone To Heaven, Debaser, Here Comes Your Man, & I really got off on both Number 13 & Gouge Away. This band overcame the horrendous tin can acoustics of the venue. What’s cool is they’re on the ‘buy a CD of our show bandwagon.’ You can get one here:

Pixies Discs

Main page:

PIXIES

Setlist:
01 Bone Machine
02 Cactus
03 U-Mass
04 Wave Of Mutilation (UK Surf)
05 Monkey Gone To Heaven
06 Subbacultcha
07 Stormy Weather
08 Something Against You
09 River Euphrates
10 Gigantic
11 Gouge Away
12 Dead
13 Debaser
14 Broken Face
15 Tame
16 Hey
17 No. 13 Baby
18 Caribou
19 Planet Of Sound
20 Alec Eiffel
21 In Heaven (Lady In The Radiator Song)
22 Wave Of Mutilation
23 Where Is My Mind?
24 The Holiday Song
25 Here Comes Your Man
26 Vamos
27 Into The White
28 La La Love You
SPIN review:

SPIN

New albums:
The new Oasis is everything it’s hyped up to be. It IS their best album since “Morning Glory.” There’s only 2 throw away tunes in the middle, but it’s full of real catchy stuff.
The new Coldplay “X&Y” is taking some time, which usually is a good sign. I don’t see it surpassing their last. “Speed Of Sound” is mighty good, but it sounds too much like “Clocks-part2.”
There’s a couple of songs on there where I’m noticing an influence from the Church (the band, not the building). I’ve got a live BBC recording from 2 weeks ago & they still sound really excellent on stage.
New Audioslave has a little sophomore slump regurg, but has a handful of good tunes.
New Robert Plant is a go get it. It’s the most Zeppelinesque solo album he’s ever done. Has a great sound. Only a few disposable songs.
Just downloaded but have not heard yet the new Foo Fighters, having read mixed reviews. It’s a double (one acoustic, one raucous) w/ guests, Nora & John Paul Joneses (no, they’re not together).

Mr U2 OCD update:
I now have 110 U2 boots, including 24 from the current tour. Tonight is their 3rd show of the European leg, following the 28 spring shows in the states.
The torrent sites keep changing hosts thanks to corporate legal threats. Here are some current active sites:

U2 Torrents

Trader's Den

Keep on rockin’ in the free bird!

P.S.

Here’s the N&O review:

Modified: Jun 14, 2005 7:13 AM
Pixies age with flash
The rock band tears it up and that's good

By DAVID MENCONI, Staff Writer

RALEIGH -- If they ever make an audio-only version of "Batman," Pixies singer Charles "Black Francis" Thompson would make a heck of a Joker. Seen on a stage, he looks completely nonthreatening -- until he opens his mouth and lets loose one of the most harrowing howls you've ever heard. He's an avatar of doom with a goofy side, capable of making you shudder and giggle at the same time.
Sunday night at a packed-to-the-rafters Disco Rodeo, Thompson basically peeled what little paint there was clean off the walls. The other three Pixies followed in his wake, pounding the crowd into submission throughout an 80-minute performance. That's on the short side, but the set was a marvel of economy. The band was all business, blazing through 28 songs with minimal chit-chat and maximum impact.

The Pixies have always had an otherworldly quality, and Sunday's stop on their reunion tour was like seeing a band that outsells U2 in some parallel universe. The crowd greeted every song with exultant shrieks of recognition, shouting along with surreal lyrics as if they were top 10 singles: "If man is five, then the devil is six, then God is seven ... This monkey's gone to heaven!"

The Pixies have never cracked the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, and you couldn't pick a less likely-looking bunch of rock stars out of a jailhouse lineup. Even in their late-1980s prime, they were a little too long on paunch, short on hair and heavy on irony for MTV.

But they sounded great then, and in many ways they sound even better now. All four Pixies are more technically solid than they were 15 years ago, and time has been kind to their music. Songs that seemed startlingly weird in 1989 now sound a lot like the hits Nirvana had a few years later. And the twangy, bouncy pop of "Here Comes Your Man" sounds downright bubblegummy.

The early part of Sunday's set drew heavily from the Pixies' 1989 album "Doolittle" (the lone gold record in their catalog). "Debaser," "Wave of Mutilation" and "Monkey Gone to Heaven" remain the best distillation of the Pixies' subdued-verse-exploding-chorus formula that proved so fruitful for Nirvana, and they sounded awesome at Disco Rodeo.

As usual, they played few instrumental solos -- just the raw power of two guitars, bass and drums churning up a maelstrom that felt like a tornado about to suck you into its vortex. The guitar battery of Thompson and Joey Santiago did most of the cutting, but bassist Kim Deal and drummer David Lovering kept up.

Highlights included the spaghetti-Western atmospherics of "Caribou," "U-Mass" (with its screamed chorus of, "It's educational!"), "Subbacultcha" and "Planet of Sound." If this is nostalgia, count me in.

Staff writer David Menconi can be reached at 829-4759 or dmenconi@newsobserver.com.