The crowd at the Orpheum Sunday night displayed an intense sense of collective reverence towards the Pixies, a typical reaction to most legendary groups.
The Pixies absolutely played up to that reverence.
They were in complete control for the entire 110-minute show, taking the mood from tender, light ballads to sunny surf to no-holds-barred punk.
Playing to the mostly full Orpheum, original members frontman and guitarist Black Francis, lead guitarist Joey Santiago and drummer David Lovering were in peak form. All three performed as if age hasn’t hindered their ability to play their unique blend of music in the slightest.
Even better, the obvious wild card of the group, bassist Paz Lenchantin (who has replaced Kim Deal during the 2014 tour) totally proved herself able to keep up with one of the most influential groups in rock history. Despite not being much bigger than the bass she plays, Lenchantin packs a solid punch and is undoubtedly the most animated and fun to watch of the whole group.
Walking onstage at 8:45 p.m., all four band members dressed in all black, the confidence of their step paired with the rousing, extended applause from the crowd showed even the previously unaware that the band is special. After all, artists such as Radiohead, PJ Harvey and Nirvana have all cited the Pixies as an influence.
Black Francis and company then rifled through 35 songs in a little less than two hours, a feat enabled by the complete absence of banter and minimal pauses between songs. While a lack of banter would often make a concert feel depersonalized or cold, it didn’t in this case. It could just be that the crowd was too deeply entrenched in their early 1990s nostalgia to really care.
Luckily, the Pixies are the type of band that has a laundry list of well-known songs, meaning there was no stretch of songs in the 35-song set that went too long before a massive sing-a-long.
“Here Comes Your Man” from the group’s sophomore 1989 release, Doolittle, was a particular highlight. Lenchantin filled in for original bassist Kim Deal on the vocal echoing of Black Francis. Lenchantin had the biggest, most infectious smile when uttering those lines.
Understandably, the crowd was made up largely of middle-aged people. The members of the crowd lost their mind for the final five songs. With a succession of “Monkey Gone to Heaven,” “Debaser,” “The Holiday Song,” “Indie Cindy” and “Where Is My Mind,” the Pixies blew the crowd away and left little question as to their musical talent.
Not falling victim to the hollow encore ritual, they did not leave out their most popular song to leave the stage only to return in a few minutes, no matter what the response was from the audience. The Pixies did it their own way. After finishing their set, the Pixies stayed on the stage and soaked up the gratitude of the crowd. After some playful interactions between the members, Lovering hopped back behind his drum set and the band put on an utterly strange encore.
What initially looked to be a completely innocent rendition of “Vamos” soon turned strange and hilarious when Black Francis and Lenchantin took to the far sides of the stage and Santiago was carried away with his guitar. Before the band reconvened to finish off the song, Santiago acted like someone playing with their first electric guitar, playing it with his shoe, messing with the pickup switch and moving the guitar all around to make different noises.
Ultimately, the Pixies put on a satisfying show. When the only things you can complain about are slight vocal-mixing issues and the corniness of having blue and green stage lights for the song “Greens and Blues,” you know it was a pretty good show.
