Pixies rock warehouse

Klaxons and The Horrors watch indie rock’s forefathers grace UK

16 June 2009 - From Nirvana onwards it’s pretty hard to find any notable rock outfit that doesn’t count the Pixies as an influence.

Even a generation on from their last studio release, though, the quartet’s raw simplicity hasn’t lost a shred of its energy.

Admittedly it was a crowd of fans and friends at an East London warehouse that saw them tear through thirteen fan favourites – the band even went so far as to seek requests beforehand – but the sheer excitement was palpable.

If anything Frank Black was looking leaner than in recent years and as Kim Deal’s taut basslines spurred the band on, you got the impression this is one old dog that doesn’t need any new tricks.

Jamie from Klaxons was in the crowd and afterwards his immediate reaction was: “It’s just raw isn’t it?”

“Soundwise and just seeing them here is incredible, that they’re here in East London in this tiny venue,” his bandmate James said.

The Pixies played the Isle of Wight festival last weekend, but the intimate show was their first solo show in the UK since 2005.

The gig also acted as an exhibition of new artwork by Vaughan Oliver, a graphic designer who has made illustrations for forthcoming reissues of the Pixies four studio albums and debut EP.

Kicking off with Where Is My Mind?, the Pixies tore through hits like Debaser and Monkey Gone to Heaven, picking tracks from lists of requests they prepared with the crowd’s help before the gig.

Sticking resolutely to their strongest material, the only pause for breath came during the encore when Kim Deal initially struggled with the B-side version of Wave of Mutilation.

She even admitted she’d tried and failed to play the track on the computer game Rock Band.

Long lionised by acts from Nirvana to Radiohead, the Pixies haven’t released fresh material since their acrimonious split in 1993, apart from the song Bam Thwock in 2004.

But Faris Badwan from The Horrors – also in the crowd – said that’s not something to be disappointed about.

“I don’t think it’s necessary for bands to keep putting stuff out. When they become a bit secure and happier it’s never as good. It’s better for bands to leave a legacy and then stop,” he told 6 Music.

On the evidence of tonight’s gig the Pixies are a band that view themselves as a legacy act, and don’t feel much compulsion to dilute songs that, while not a great success commercially, have a rock solid place in the history of alternative rock music.

Later this week the Pixies play at the Ejekt festival in Athens before heading to Berlin for a solo show on Friday.

Set list:

Where is my mind?
Hey
Number 13 baby
Monkey gone to heaven
U-Mass
Debaser
Tame
Gigantic
Into the light
Planet of Sound
Dig for fire
Bone machine

Wave of mutilation

Rodrigo Davies