My ideal setting for seeing the Pixies would be at a dive bar in Boston or New York in the late 80’s or early 90’s (forget the fact that I would have been 10 years old). At the show on Tuesday night I tried imagining what it would have been like to see the band with a couple of hundred people at a dingy subterranean rock club, standing no more than 50 feet from them. Instead they took the stage under the fancy chandeliers of the Fillmore Auditorium in front of a giant video screen for Doolittle Live or as it felt, the Pixies’ farewell tour.
The smell of “the ganja” was thick even before the foursome took the stage, and when the house lights went out it was as if the ban on smoking indoors in Colorado was on temporary hiatus. I’ve been watching a lot of Mad Men lately, so I loved it. The assessments of the bartenders at the Fillmore were accurate in describing the feelings about the show going in. One was a huge fan of the Pixies and was “ZOMG” overjoyed that she was able to work both nights right next to the stage. The other was at the bar in the back. We asked him if he had worked the previous night and he answered with a less than enthusiastic “uh huh.”
“It’s really loud. They’re stuck in 1989,” he said.
Um… That’s probably why everyone is here. It’s kind of the point, I thought.
After playing a few well identified B-sides to pad their set a little bit (bassist Kim Deal was the unofficial MC for the evening, pointing out A-sides and B-sides, etc.), they set into Doolittle starting at the top with Debaser. Continuing more or less in order, they rocked through the entire album along with video sequences that were specifically choreographed to each song. While the bright lights were impressive, I can’t help but think that they took a little bit away from the “Pixies experience.” I suppose I wanted something a little more intimate, but for this tour and venue it was not meant to be.
Sonically they sounded as good as could be expected for a band that hasn’t toured in awhile and whose members are mostly in their mid-40’s. I stepped outside for a smoke at one point and noticed that they sounded significantly better closer to the stage, perhaps aided by the fuzz created from playing so loud. Black Francis was as throaty as ever screaming on some songs, singing well-tuned harmonies on others, and doing both respectably. For the most part, the show’s energy was high save for a few moments, most notably guitarists Joey Santiago’s final solo which had some technical problems before he threw his hands in the air and stopped playing.
It was definitely a rock and roll experience for me, an admitted outside party to the Pixies craziness embodied by much of the crowd. I guess for the $50 ticket price, most of them were required to be more than a bit excited. Still, the show was fully enjoyed by the majority of the audience, who were obviously big time fans. I go back to the assessment of the bartenders though. For die-hards it was a can’t miss, gotta-go-both-nights performance, for most others… meh.
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