Pixies at the Ryman in Nashville
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!
