Pixies Liberty Hall, Moore Park November 20 Reviewed by GEORGE PALATHINGAL ★★★1⁄2 We’ve had the soaring highs of finally experiencing the original line-up on Australian shores on their triumphant, festival-headlining 2007 reunion tour , and the lesser highs of subsequently seeing them without bass player and crucial second singer Kim Deal in venues both traditional and impressive since. Rarely, however, have we got to see Boston alt-/art-rock mould-breakers the Pixies playing a full, fan-thrilling set in a room this cosy (capacity: 1200). On top of that, the night before their official duties on this visit – of opening for Pearl Jam at stadiums – they fire into proceedings in a way few might have expected.
Black Francis can still access his demented shriek and unsettlingly sweet falsetto. Credit: Simone Gorman-Clark You can almost hear the crash of jaws on the floor when they open with Where Is My Mind? , get to its fellow would-be encore no-brainer Here Comes Your Man a couple of tunes later, and go on to let more from that late ’80s/early ‘90s creative peak dominate the set. (They play only a handful of new songs from this year’s The Night the Zombies Came .
Tellingly, their other post-reunion output is ignored.) Black Francis’ voice has deepened with age, but he can still access his demented shriek and unsettlingly sweet falsetto. He’s true to an early gag that “we don’t have a lot of dance moves, all we’ve got is some songs”, and the whole .