planet of sound

the very first concert i went to was just like heaven. it was 1989, my life was heavily influenced by the music of that time (still is), and i had 10th row seats (10th row!!!) to see my favorite band, the cure, at dodger stadium. if that wasn't cool enough, the opening bands included shellyann orphan, the pixies, and love and rockets. how fucking amazing is that lineup! to this day it remains one of my favorite shows of all time.

i counted myself as one of the lucky few (amongst my friends) to have seen the pixies play together live before they broke up the band in 1993. and years later, before the pixies announced their reunion, i would sit around with people talking about how great a band they were, how influential, how original; and wish that we could see them play live again.

so last year when rumors were going around about them getting back together, i was super excited! and when tickets went on sale for their 2 stops in l.a. i bought several tickets for both nights.

unfortunately my enthusiasm wasn't equaled by everyone else. or maybe it just seemed that way because i'm older now and the kids of today don't realize how awesome a force of rock this band is. (the lack of enthusiasm might also be blamed on $50 ticket prices and the fact that they played the coachella musical festival several months before their solo tour dates thereby trumping the sales and impact of their real reunion tour.) but c'mon pilgrims, it's the fucking pixies!!!

so true to my nostalgic devotion, i trekked up griffith park to see the pixies at the greek theater last night. (and it really was a trek cause gentleman drinker and i parked way down the hill from the venue.) penquin, isobel, gentleman drinker, and a couple people from work who were nice enough to take the tickets off my hands at the last minute joined me in our own personal row of seats. [now here comes the old geezer bit of the entry where i exalt the location of our seats: we had pretty cool seats -- nothing like 10th row -- but cool in that north terrace section kinda way where the seats are elevated and a little bit to the left of the stage, the section is smaller so has a lesser maximum occupancy, and we were close to beer and the restrooms (which seem to go hand in hand). here endeth the exaltation.]

gentleman drinker and i caught some of one of the opening bands, the thrills. god they sucked. all their songs were the same, their lyrics were irksome and repetitive (honestly the guy just sings three phrases over and over and over again), and the sound grated on my eardrums. (i think if the pixies had chosen a better opening band they might have gotten a lot more excitement around their shows.)

but as soon as the pixies took the stage, as soon as you heard that familiar strike on the guitar string, that reminiscent rhythm of the drums, and steady sexy bassline, you forget the little annoyances and remember how much the pixies rock. and the pixies still know how to rock! sure they're older and a little worse for wear, but black francis/frank black/charles thompson iv/or whatever-the-hell-he-calls-himself-now can still fucking wail. and while kim had some issues reaching some of the notes in her harmonies, her earnestness made up for it.

hearing the pixies play live again you become hyper-aware of just how many hit songs they had. wave of mutilation, debaser, bone machine, where is my mind?, monkey gone to heaven, gouge away, nimrod's son, caribou, there goes my gun, tame, hey, gigantic, etc. it was just one song after another of rock & roll canon. they just kept bringing it on! like, "hey, remember this one? yeah, ok well here's another! what about this?" it was really fucking cool.

yeah, that was a good show; like an older version of youthful punk rock partying and sentiment, like being stopped between two stations where the soundtrack remains the same, like a fantastic time-warped diversion to a planet of sound.