Pixies/No Age @ Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles 11/4/09
Andrew Youssef
When Kim Deal's not singing through a distorted mic with sister Kelley in an elaborate Mayan World Series in Brooklyn, she's back in the fold with the reunited Pixies. The group hit the Palladium in Los Angeles (for the first of three nights) to launch their nine-city 20th Anniversary Doolittle tour. Speaking of distortion, No Age got things started. Our trusty photographer Andrew Youssef tells us there were microphone problems for the first couple of songs, but that Dean and Randy, who should be getting used to performing with punk legends, hit their stride toward the end of the set with "Eraser" and "Miner," etc. Throwing a bit of a curve ball, the Pixies opened with B-Sides before jumping into "Debaser" and the promised complete run through of Doolittle, which was followed by two encores. (Besides saying "Gracias" between a few songs, Deal jokingly asked if anyone was coming the following night because they were playing the same thing.) The set was up and down as might be expected on a first night, but the group received a huge ovation that brought them out to center stage for a deserved -- if not for last night, for all time, or whatever -- group bow. We have the setlist and tons of great photos from Andrew.
Setlist
01 "Dancing the Manta Ray"
02 "Weird at My School"
03 "Bailey's Walk"
04 "Manta Ray"
05 "Debaser"
06 "Tame"
07 "Wave of Mutilation"
08 "I Bleed"
09 "Here Comes Your Man"
10 "Dead"
11 "Monkey Gone to Heaven"
12 "Mr. Grieves"
13 "Crackity Jones"
14 "La La Love You"
15 "No. 13 Baby"
16 "There Goes My Gun"
17 "Hey"
18 "Silver"
19 "Gouge Away"
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20 "Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf)"
21 "Into the White"
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22 "Isla de Encanta"
23 "Gigantic"
24 "Where Is My Mind?"
Posted at 4:02 PM by brandon in Contest, Photo
Tags: Frank Black | Kim Deal | No Age | Pixies
This is great and everything, but Frank Black has just made two incredible albums recently as Black Francis. It kinda seems like a step backward... into a huge pile of money.
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Am I the only one who thinks it's time for the Pixies to stop doing this? They've been doing the reunion tour for as long as they were an actual band the first time around, or at least damn close. They were, in their day, one of the greatest bands ever. "Doolittle" is a wonderful album that everyone on Earth should hear. The problem is, nostalgia can only take you so far and it's starting to make me a little sad to see this band touring and playing 20 year old songs over and over and over until you're kind of sick of them. At this point they either need to decide that they are a "real band" and start making some new music, throw in the towel and break up for good, or just play Vegas until they die.
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I'm glad you ain't their manager. I'd see them once a year if I could. I love their 20 year old songs.
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YEAH toto, I agree. And what about the people (read, me) who were just bein' born when Doolittle came out, alex? I'm seeing them for the fiiiiirst time this month and I'm SO excited. In fact, I wish more bands did this.
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>>The problem is, nostalgia can only take you so far and it's starting to make me a little sad to see this band touring and playing 20 year old songs over and over
Alex- I couldn't disagree with you more. First of all, there is nothing "sad" ever about playing great music live. If they released Doolittle, Surfer Rosa, hell even Bossanova today it would be better than anything that is currently on the indie scene.
Second. The Pixies deserve to make every penny that they can off of these great albums. It is a great tragedy that they weren't more popular in America (they were huge in the UK) back in the 80's when they were active. That reflects badly on us...not them.
People should be able to enjoy this music live as long as they can play. Why punish people who weren't old enough to catch them the first time around?
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