Just got home from the Pixies concert at the Concert Hall! It was the second night of two and the sold-out crowd ate it up like crazy. Here's how the show went: b-sides, songs from the Doolittle album, long encore break, 2 more b-sides, extra long encore break, house lights come up and then they play a short set of "hits" (not on Doolittle), end of show.
I just read the
review in the Winnipeg Sun from last night's first show and it probably a good thing I didn't read it before the show. Sun writer, Old Coot Sheridan didn't exactly think it was the concert of the year and he makes good points and I can't disagree totally with his critical review, but I think if I read it beforehand it might have ruined some of the experience. Granted, playing an entire album isn't always a crowd-pleaser, there are a lot of deep tracks they probably don't perform much live and the b-sides weren't anything special, but it was a different experience than a greatest hits show. (There was a more favourable review in the
Free Press.)
I think I've been to enough concerts to judge a good/bad show and despite the criticisms, it was still an engaging show. I liked the band's music back in the mid/late 80's and I still listen to their music now. If they wrote and released new material, I'm not sure it would be my cup of tea now or if I would enjoy it as much. They were part of my musical soundtrack at that time of my life, but that was a long time ago and other bands/music have taken their place. But once in a while it's nice to relive those nice memories.
As I write this, I'm listening to my concert recording of the show and it sounds fantastic! I'll get around to posting it on Dime in the next day or so, and then I'll post it here, If anyone's interested. Please let me know.
I meant to post this earlier in anticipation of the concert, Kim Deal's other project, the Breeders. These are demos from the sessions for their best known album,
Last Splash.
(The following taken from the notes about the sessions)
The demos are sourced from two sessions both recorded at Cro-Magnon Studios in Dayton, Ohio. The first 8 tracks are from September 1992. This was apparently a very preliminary recording session, just to sketch out the songs, with most of the tracks being instrumental. The second batch (tracks 9-17) is from November 1992. The songs are a bit more together and include vocals for the most part. Still, there are some very noticeable differences to the finished album versions in songs such as "Divine Hammer" and "Saints". Perhaps the highlight of the tape is a completely unreleased song called "Go Man Go", previously known only to fans by one low-quality live recording. The vocals are very high in the mix for this 2nd set.Enjoy!
THE BREEDERS Last Splash Demos Cro-Magnon Studios,
Dayton, Ohio, USA
September and November 1992
01 No Aloha (instrumental, with Kelly's guitar)
02 No Aloha (instrumental, without Kelly's guitar)
03 Divine Hammer [Ding Ding] (instrumental)
04 Invisible Man (instrumental)
05 Cannonball [Grunge] (some vocals)
06 Saints (instrumental)
07 New Year (instrumental)
08 Invisible Man (with just backing vocals)
09 Saints
10 Cannonball [Grunge]
11 SOS [Figure 8]
12 I Just Wanna Get Along
13 Go Man Go
14 No Aloha
15 Divine Hammer
16 New Year (instrumental)
17 Roi
THE BREEDERS- Last Splash Demos. rar