Bloody hell! A night to remember with the Pixies

Bloody Hell! Pixies came to Hiroshima. It seems like a dream. There have been plenty of fine gigs here over the years, but no band this important has made it here in recent memory, and what fun it was.

Of course we welcomed them Hiroshima-style with the tiniest of crowds. Have the Pixies played to fewer people since they reformed in 2004? I doubt it. Across the globe tickets for their shows have been selling out in hours. Here you could get a ticket on the night. Nevermind, Hiroshima insouciance had its rewards for the mixture of youngsters, greyheads and baldies who did make out to bounce around in Quattro last night. It was almost embarrassingly intimate but frankly splendid to stand a metre away from this musical phenomenon as they did their inimitable thing.

Pixies were always no nonsense band and haven’t changed a great deal. Bigger and older, they arrived punctually took their familiar positions on stage and blasted their way through 90 minute set of extraordinary songs. I didn’t have the presence of mind to grab a playlist but in no particular order these included songs like Caribou, Levitate, Monkey’s Gone to Heaven, U-Mass, Vamos, Nimrod’s Son, Heaven, Gouge Away, Here Comes Your Man, Debaser, Wave of Mutilation, Gigantic….

They played a fine gig. Dave Lovering was giving it his all on drums and shared a stick with Joey Santiago for an interesting little version of Vamos. Chain-smoking Kim Deal had a beatific smile all night and even tried out some Japanese for us, Frank was Frank. I’d have liked it a tiny bit louder, but really who can complain when you get to see the magnificent Frank Black, back with his old band, standing right in front of you playing like a devil and still screaming his heart out.

Click play below for clips from the gig and get downloads here.