Pixies magic at Ally Pally

The reformed rockers storm the capital

01 Sep 05 - Pixies played their biggest headlining gig since reforming at London's Alexandra Palace last night.

In an epic 25-song career-spanning set, they teased the crowd with a low-key, semi-acoustic start on Wave Of Mutilation (Surf Version) and gentle renditions of songs like Where Is My Mind, Here Comes Your Man and La La Love You.

The set then grew slowly in terms of volume and intensity through versions of The Holiday Song and a cover of Neil Young's Winterlong before hitting vintage form on savage renditions of Planet Of Sound, Tame, Stormy Weather, Gouge Away, Bone Machine, Debaser and the proper version of Wave Of Mutilation.

According to our eyewitnesses at the gig, Black Francis' scream didn't quite match the intensity of the old days, but it came pretty damn close.

They then milked the applause for ages before deciding not to bother going off and ended with Gigantic.

Support last night came from Sunderland's finest The Futureheads, who'll play again with the band again at the venue tonight. Frontman Ross Millard told 6 Music he was honoured.
 
"It was fantastic," he said. "It's just the fact that you're playing and you know that within 40 minutes you're going to watch on of your favourite bands. We never really imagined that we'd do anything like this."

He continued: " I mean, the fact that they've even bothered to reform at all is amazing in itself but the fact that we're playing with them, well, we can't really believe it." 


Jody Thompson and Mark Sutherland