Get Simulated

Saturday saw my beloved Pixies play their third Cardiff gig in as many years. I knew a ton of people who were going and spectacularly failed to meet up with most of them, but met up with Matthew and son, which was a result.

I hit the merch stall hard and then entered the enormo-dome to the underwhelming ‘Slow Readers Club’. Pixies were on at 8:30 to a sold out crowd and - as far as I can remember - into ‘Gouge Away’.’ There did a fair glug of classics, with a smattering of Pixies 2.0 numbers, which freshened the band up. They were as tight as I’ve ever seen them. There was a mic in front of the drums facing out which Charles would occasionally step up to, and we strongly suspect that he was telling the rest of the band what song to do next. Midway through the set they did 10 songs straight from the - excellent - recent album ‘Doggrel’. You could feel the energy drain out of the room, it was a wilfully perverse thing to do, but they’ve always been like that, then they mixed up a bit more with ‘Surferosa’ and ‘Bossanova’ songs, but fuuuuuccck, no ‘Debaser’! Goddamn it! Still, they’re the greatest band on this or any other planet (of sound).

All Pixies gigs are great - that’s just science - but this was one of the lesser ones, having said that if they played in Cardiff tomorrow I’d go and see them, and I tried to get tickets for one of their London Roundhouse shows but failed. It was a joy to be in their company again.