Adventures with Dr. Lady Cutie Troublemaker

Charles/Black Francis/Frank Black

Well, even though it seems as half my blog readership hasn’t heard of the Pixies, which, to me, is about on par with not having heard of mushrooms. ANYWAY, I still feel like posting a review. It will entertain me, and that’s fun… you know… for me.

The gig was on Wednesday night at the Ryman Auditorium, which is the old home of the Grand Old Opry. It’s an excellent space. I’d been into the lobby yet hadn’t ever seen anyone play there.

This was a reunion tour. The big fear I had was that they’d be doing it for the money, hating every minute of it, and that it would be obvious in their performance. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. They sounded really excellent. The crowd was so grateful just to see them all together. I think age has mellowed them all a bit. Kim Deal is still chain smoking. Frank Black (or are we calling him Black Francis again?) alluded to the fact that Kim had a sore throat, but to me, she sounded like she always did. She still had that freakish happy expression on her face the whole time like she always did. They played lots of their “hits” (although they never really got much radio play outside of college stations). They also played a lot of songs that I used to skip past on the CDs!

They sounded excellent. They aren’t the most dynamic performers ever, but I saw them back in the day, and they weren’t dynamic back then either. At the end of the main set, instead of leaving the stage, they came to the front of the stage to accept a long standing o, and they had the lights turned on to the crowd, and they accepted the adulation, and they waved and smiled and seemed happy. Throughout the show, FB (BF?) and KD had good rapport, seemed to get along fine. Like I said, I was worried they’d have the doing-it-for-the-money feel, but I think they were truly enjoying themselves. Man, I didn’t remember how excellent the drumming was.

The Thrills opened. They were just as dull last night as they were when I saw them open for Gomez. A seriously yawner of an opening act. Seems they could have done better.

If only I could jet to NYC for the final night of the tour. The midnight gig has 50 Foot Wave opening. That would be a total DREAM!

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Does anyone get the reference in the title? Anyone at all? Bueller… Bueller…

So that’s a line from an old Pixies song. The Pixies broke up around 1990. Kim Deal and Black Francis just couldn’t deal with each other anymore. She grabbed her twin sister and a Throwing Muse and created The Breeders. Black Francis switched his name inside-out and became Frank Black. They made some good albums. Now the Pixies have reunited, and I’m holding tickets to the Nashville gig tomorrow night. I’m very skeptical. I hope they don’t suck.

Oh, and regarding work… They actually kept me very busy today at my minor. I’m very pleased about that. I don’t do bored well. Tonight, I was going to relax and take a bath, but the loudest location for listening to rave boy’s music is the bathroom, so I may just wait until the morning. Somehow a rushed shower in the morning with rave music isn’t as bad as when I’m supposed to be relaxing. I love my options. They are so very… REASONABLE… or not!

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I can’t believe how great this internship is. It’s a helluva lot of work, but I really feel like they do an excellent job of lining up great people who can provide us with exactly the kind of opportunities we’re looking for. I like all of my fellow co-interns, too. Not a bad one in the bunch. The other interns are all interesting people who seem to really have their heads on straight and know what they’re doing. This morning, I was in a lecture where I was actually a little behind everyone else, and honestly, I loved it. If I could choose, I’d prefer to be in a place where there are other people who are a little bit smarter than me. Now I’m not saying they are all smarter (heh heh), but they have had more training in the MMPI-2 than I have. That’s a really common personality measure that I learned a little bit about years ago in my personality assessment class but haven’t used much in practice. Anyhoo, I’m just feeling really lucky to be a part of it, even though I come home utterly exhausted most nights.

This weekend is pretty unplanned, which is actually a great thing. I’m going to try and sleep lots and clean. This place needs it… and I need it. I don’t really remember being this tired and overloaded in a long, long time. I think this is a year I will look back at as being highly significant in my life… Wait, didn’t I just have a few of those? Heh. Power living, people. Power living!

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