I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: June 9, 2023] Pixies

I saw Pixies in 1989 and assumed I’d never see them again.  Then they reunited and started making new music.  So I saw them in 2017 and they were great.  Then I saw them the following year when they opened for Weezer (!).

That second show was shorter but they played a couple of songs that I hadn’t heard them play before and that was awesome.  I assumed I’d never need to see them again.

And now, five years later (holy cow), they were doing a headlining tour for a new album that I hadn’t listened to.  I wasn’t going to go until I saw that the two opening acts were bands I really wanted to see.

Bully is a great young band with a massive 90’s alt rock sound and Franz Ferdinand are a great 2000’s band who has been touring a lot lately but whom I missed when they were in town last time.  So I mean, Pixies are great and that’s cool, but that’s not who I was actually there to see.

In the six years since I last saw them headline, not a lot has changed.  They play a ton of songs, they don’t talk between songs and they sound fantastic.  The one difference was that they really seemed to be having fun up there.  Not that they didn’t before, but they had a few moments of levity on stage this time. Like when they messed up a song and were all smiles about it.

Or when Black Francis played a chord wrong and then walked over to put his glasses on.  He started the song again, played the complicated chord, took his glasses off, smiled and walked back to the mic to sing.

And they started with a great selection of songs (I mean, they have a million to choose from).  I loved hearing “Gouge Away” and “Bone Machine.”  “Wave of Mutilation” always sounds great and I forgot how much I love their cover of “Head On.”  I was really starting to get into the show now.

They played a new song and that’s when I remembered that they have put out FOUR new records since they reunited.  That’s about as many song as they released before they broke up).  And I didn’t really know any of those songs.

But they’re Pixies songs and they sound like Pixies song and that’s no bad thing.

They played “Hey” which I love, except for the guy behind me who was shouting for “Hey” for most of the show and then shouted the lyrics at the top of his lungs.

This show has proved to me that audiences at The Met Philly are the worst.  I don’t know if I’ve been to a show there where the audience hasn’t sucked.  This show started at 6:45, so I’m guessing people had been drinking for a long time.

Before Pixies came on, I saw the most fascinating bro stand-off.  A guy was pogoing behind me during Franz Ferdinand.  He was annoying but whatever.  Then something must have happened and an aggressive bro got in his face and called him an asshole.  The guy was like, who me?  And then the bro was yelling “You think it’s funny to hit women!?”  So he was a woke bro?  That scene dissipated pretty quickly, but by the end of the night that bro and his woman had moved in front of me and she was exceptionally hammered.  So much so that when she stumbled out of the pit with about 30 minutes left in Pixies’ set, I was going to say to him that she wasn’t coming back.  And she didn’t.   wondered if she was passed out in the bathroom.  There are many shows at the Met where women absolutely cannot handle the amount they drink.

Anyway, Pixies played “Monkey Gone to Heaven,” the first song I’d ever heard by them back in college and followed it with “Planet of Sound” one of my favorite deeper cuts and I was ecstatic to hear it live.

Then came five songs from their new album–and I knew none of them.  It was kind of rough having all five in a row, honestly.  They were good and I plan to listen to the album today, but oof, five in a row.

I was actually thinking of moving my spot to further back in the pit, although I hate moving spots.  ut my feet were starting to hurt and I was getting a little bored.

But they pulled out of the new stuff with some random older songs which were fun to hear.  I always loved “Mr Grieves.”

I was pretty delighted that they played “Here Comes Your Man” and “Nimrod’s Son.”  Then I was really surprised when they played the UK Surf version of “Wave of Mutilation” (although they did that in 2017, too).  Strangely, and maybe this is a Pixies thing now, people waved during both versions of the song and Paz waved back.

Speaking of Paz, she bring such a happy energy to the band.  Black Francis is pretty much all business. Joey Santiago is off to the side doing amazing things on his guitar.  When we saw him in 2017, he did an amazingly weird guitar solo that involved using all kinds of things to have his guitar make noise.   Tonight’s solo was much shorter, and mostly he used the brim of his ball cap to bang and slide up his guitar.

Drummer David Lovering was great as always, but he’s kind of forgotten back there.  Last time he got to sing “La La Love You” which was great.  But this time he played and that was that.

My daughter has told me recently that “Where is My Mind?” is a popular song and she was pretty excited that I was seeing Pixies because of that song.  So of course they played it and people (especially the young kids in front of me) went nuts.

They ended with a cover of Neil Young’s “Winterlong” which they also played back in 2017.  I’ve no idea why that song, but it sounded fantastic.

When the set was over, Black Francis put on his glasses and smiled a lot.  It was the most I’ve ever seen him smile–in fact the whole band was full of smiles.  It was a really nice ending to a long night (and three concert nights in a row).

 

Met Philly, June 9, 2023 (headlining)	PNC Bank Center, July 20, 2018 (opening act)	Stone Pony Summerstage, September 23, 2017 (headlining)
Gouge Away [∂]	U-Mass [¥]	Gouge Away [∂]
Bone Machine [$]	Wave of Mutilation [∂]	No. 13 Baby [∂]
Wave of Mutilation [∂]	Gouge Away [∂]	Brick is Red [$]
Head On [¥] (Jesus and Mary Chain)	Caribou [¢]	Break My Body [$]
Isla de Encanta [¢]	Classic Masher [Œ]	Wave of Mutilation [∂]
Nomatterday [⊗]	Debaser [∂]	Um Chugga Lagga [Œ]
Caribou [¢]	Monkey Gone to Heaven [∂]	Isla de Encanta [¢]
Hey [∂]	I Bleed [∂]	Something Against You [$]
Doggerel [⊗]	Crackity Jones [∂]	Hey [∂]
Monkey Gone to Heaven [∂]	Isla de Encanta [¢]	All I Think About Now [Œ]
Planet of Sound [¥]	Hey [∂]	Monkey Gone to Heaven [∂]
Who’s More Sorry Now? [⊗]	Um Chugga Lagga [Œ]	Classic Masher [Œ]
The Lord Has Come Back Today [⊗]	Where Is My Mind? [$]	Vamos [$]
Haunted House [⊗]	Gigantic [$]	Nimrod’s Son [¢]
Dregs of the Wine [⊗]	Bel Esprit [Œ]	All the Saints [Œ]
Get Simulated [⊗]	Bone Machine [$]	Ana [β]
Ana [β]	Head On [¥] (Jesus and Mary Chain)	Motorway to Roswell [¥]
Mr. Grieves [∂]	All I Think About Now [Œ]	Magdalena 318 [Î]
Vamos [$]	Tame [∂]	Cactus [$]
All the Saints [Œ]	Cactus [$]	Bel Esprit [Œ]
Death Horizon [⇓]	I’ve Been Tired [¢]	Crackity Jones [∂]
Here Comes Your Man [∂]	Vamos [$]	Broken Face [$]
Nimrod’s Son [¢]		Bone Machine [$]
Blown Away [β]		I’ve Been Tired [¢]
Break My Body [$]		Might as Well be Gone [Œ]
Cactus [$]		Mr. Grieves [∂]
Motorway to Roswell [¥]		Where is My Mind? [$]
Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf)		Head Carrier [Œ]
Where is My Mind? [$]		Caribou [¢]
Winterlong (Neil Young)		Winterlong (Neil Young)
		Here Comes Your Man [∂]
		La La Love You [∂]
		Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf)
		encore
		Into the White