Portland loved the Pixies

Last night, the Pixies performed at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland. Best Coast, a lo-fi garage and surf pop band based out Los Angeles, opened for the Pixies around 8:00pm. I still can’t find a reason why they were invited to open. They sounded okay and the crowd didn’t seem too impressed with their performance. Applause was lack luster and about half of the audience still hadn’t shown up, were struggling to find their seats in the dark, or were waiting 20-30 minutes in the humongous lines to the bars for beer that came with a lid and a straw that the venue staff enforced attendants to drink out of.

You can only get so much applause and attention when you’re a band that plays simple 3 chord rock melodies and pair it with pop princess lyrics that parallel the attitudes of a privileged 16 year old suburban teenager. Best Coast’s summery vibes got things going at least and did their part. They deserve credit because they didn’t put on a bad performance.

  

After the set ended and people did what they needed to do, the Pixies came on stage. A sold out crowd rose to their feet cheering and everybody stayed standing for the rest of the show, besides those who sat in the balcony. Then, the Pixies gave what the crowd wanted: a 30-song set of both old and new material. During the entire performance, there was no banter or talking, the Pixies simply just played. The crowd seemed stoked throughout the entire gig and stayed on their feet roaring during the encore. It was a great performance both for fans that grew up with the Pixies and the younger new generation of fans who are now old enough to see the Pixies for the first time. Below is their set list with added comments.

1. Bone Machine
2. Wave of Mutilation
3. U-Mass
4. Head On (The Jesus and Mary Chain cover)
5. Crackity Jones
6. Isla de Encanta
7. Ana
8. Brick Is Red
9. I’ve Been Tired
10. Magdalena
11. Cactus
12. Gouge Away
13. Hey
14. Snakes
15. Silver Snail
16. In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song)
• This rendition didn’t include any break or percussion. This honestly was the darkest song performed during the show.
17. Andro Queen
18. Where Is My Mind?
• Crowd went nuts
19. Velouria
20. Havalina
21. Bagboy
22. Blue Eyed Hexe
23. Monkey Gone to Heaven
24. Caribou
25. Indie Cindy
26. Mr. Grieves
27. Here Comes Your Man
• Crowd went nuts again
28. La La Love You
• David, the drummer, sang his part and got tons of applause. Frank faded out the song by encouraging him to keep singing his part while he played the melody of the song on acoustic guitar alone. This lasted for a good 30 seconds after the song, as recorded on Doolittle, was really over.
29. Greens and Blues
30. Vamos
• Joey, the lead guitarist, was entertaining during his solo. He smacked and shook his guitar around to produce a variety of distorted sounds. He eventually broke his guitar cable doing so and played around making sounds with the cable while his sound guy replaced it with a new one.

Encore:
31. Planet of Sound

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