The Pixies: Hammerstein Ballroom, New York, NY 11/24/09

The Pixies have been back together now for four years touring and reliving their late 80’s heyday.  They haven’t recorded any new material, instead they choose to focus on their most acclaimed work and tonight they played their best album Doolittle in its entirety.  

The overly sold-out ballroom was treated to a few B-sides from the singles released off Doolittle to start the night.  “Bailey’s Walk” and “Manta Ray” may not have been well known by everyone in attendance but they prepped the crowd for the main course and when Kim Deal’s bass line for “Debaser” rumbled out the place exploded.  To hammer home the point, on the video screen huge block letter spelled out the albums title.  All of the tracks were attacked with vigor; the hits “Wave of Mutilation” “Monkey Gone to Heaven” and “Here Comes Your Man” were played to perfection.  Kim even commented after “Monkey Gone To Heaven” that it was the end of side one, ahh the long lost days of LP’s and Cassettes.  Other tracks were standouts as well, “Hey”, “Tame”, and “I Bleed” all shone with masterful guitar work from Frank Black and Joey Santiago.          

They ended the set with the record closing “Gouge Away” while the crowd picked up the intensity, starting a small moshpit and even a bit of crowd surfing.  The band then came back with a few more B-sides (“Into The White”) and a few classics from even earlier in their career (“Caribou”, “Ed is Dead”).  

It has been 20 years since Doolittle’s release but the songs still sound fresh via Frank Black’s take on pop/punk/art rock and the group’s cohesiveness.  The musicianship tonight was inspiring and the band was clearly in good spirits, the short haired Deal joked with the crowd often.  If The Pixies don’t make any new music it may just be OK as long as they continue to give the love to their best efforts.  Surfer Rosa tour next?