This was THE CONCERT of the year for me: the Pixies with Mission of Burma at the Tsongas Arena in Lowell, Massachusetts. Prior to the show, I kept looking for information about the Pixies’ concerts and was disappointed in the quality of the writing that I found. After last night, I understand; the show was so INDESCRIBABLY WONDERFUL that any attempt to describe it would be FUTILE. But I’ll try anyway, fanboy slobbering aside.
The crowd at last night’s show was an odd mix. Lots of college kids, a bunch of people my age or so, a few gray heads and more than a few high school kids. But all of us seemed united in one thing—none of us seemed like we were typical concert goers; all of us seemed in disbelief that the show was really about to happen. “If they just play ‘Dig for Fire,’ I’ll be happy,” said one fan behind me on the floor. His friend replied, “I’ll settle for ‘Bone Machine.’” His friend said, “Actually, I’d settle for ‘Crackity Jones’…”.
The warm-up act, the Bennies, elicited some surprised laughter when they wheeled out on stage. Yes, wheeled; the Bennies’ lead singer, Jeremy Dubs, is a little person who’s confined to a wheelchair. But he rocked hard when they came out of the gate, at one point headbanging so hard that his glasses flew off. The group played a tight set of mostly short songs, many of which betrayed the Pixies’ influence through frequent meter and tempo changes (though lyrically the group was a lot less surreal than their ticketmates). I’ll look forward to finding their album when it’s released.
Then Mission of Burma took the stage. They started hard, with “The Setup” from their new album, ONoffON, and didn’t let up throughout a hard-edged set that alternated new tunes like “Falling” (which was spectacular live) with influential early material like “Peking Spring,” “Academy Fight Song,” “Fame and Fortune,” “This Is Not a Photograph,” “Dumbells,” “Red,” and of course “That’s When I Reach for My Revolver.”
As I listened to the band, several contradictory thoughts were going through my mind at once. First, few crowd members seemed familiar with the band’s work, which is unfortunate; if Mission of Burma couldn’t get a mosh pit or even a little pogoing started with “Academy Fight Song” less than an hour from their own home town, what the hell was wrong with the world? Second, Roger Miller is an amazingly inventive guitarist, and I wish I had seen his performance with Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo at Irving Plaza two years ago. I wasn’t aware of this date last night, but remember thinking distinctly that with Mission of Burma’s songwriting skills and Sonic Youth’s inventive guitar onslaught, you could have a really amazing supergroup…
Article comments
1 - Jonathan
I saw the Pixies in montreal on november 27th.
Wow. Just..Wow..
It was amazing. The opening bands, The Marble Index and The Datsuns were meh to me. The pixies though..Wow.. Black only said one thing to us "Bitchin' crowd." and that was all he had to say cause it kicked so much ass. The crowd was basically the same as you described.. The only thing I didn't like was when some chick with stilleto heels was crowd surfing and nearly poked my eyes out :)
2 - Bob A. Booey
It was great seeing all the kids five-ten years younger than me singing along to songs that even I wasn't old enough to remember when they were written.
The coolest addition to the setlist from the two nights I went was "Head On," their cover of the Jesus and Mary Chain song. I've never heard it sound so good and it was probably the highlight of both nights for me, in addition to the usual songs everyone loves. I love the original Jesus and Mary Chain song, but their live version blew it away and gave it teeth. Playing that song demonstrates the respect the Pixies have for their audience, digging deep to play a song they didn't play last year in their first warm-up to this tour and kicking the shit out of a song that was just average and almost forgettable as a cover when they first recorded it on album. The Black Francis screams and growls never sounded so good as on that chorus, which is almost too beautiful and optimistic -- "makes you wanna feel, makes you wanna blow the stars from the sky" -- to fit in the surreal world of the Pixies, yet finally did in a completely unexpected and surprising way. I hope a lot of the other fans in the audience tonight echoed those lyrics: "And the way I feel tonight / I could die and I wouldn't mind ..."
There will never be a band smarter or cooler than the Pixies -- writing songs about Samson and Delilah; having one of your biggest hits be a reference to the surrealist cinema of Bunuel; the haunting, driving melodies of "Where is My Mind?" and "Caribou"; any fan could go on and on. And it's great to see them finally able to enjoy their legacy and the great music they made. They're far enough (a decade) removed from the disappointment over their breakup and the relative lack of commercial success that always hung over their heads: "the band that SHOULD have been Nirvana." And with that distance, I think the culture has finally come around to recognize the Pixies' role in creating alternative rock. They were truly ahead of their time and I think America's just now catching up to the Pixies.
Yeah, the "goodnight Kim, Charles" bit was cute.
Olsen: steal these last two comments for your next MSNBC piece :) I give you permission. Yes, I know they're that good.
I kid, I kid ....
That is all.
3 - SFC SKI
Wow, a new type of annoying Spambot, ain't technology great?