This Monkey’s Gone To Heaven – by Philamental...
Well I certainly feel like I have anyway! I have just seen my third Pixies gig in the last couple of weeks and thought I would share my experience with you good, good people!
Thursday - 3rd June - Brixton Academy, London...
The sold out Thursday and Friday gigs at the Brixton Academy earlier this month were the two best gigs I have ever had the pleasure to experience!
I had read on various message-boards and newsgroups that there was little in the way of interaction between the band and the crowd throughout this tour and to be honest I don't give a shit. When the band play their songs as well as that, with that fucking energy and expression, they completely connect with the crowd and the fact that there was no bullshit banter made no difference to me.
For me, Thursday was the better of the two. Possibly because I was in the stalls and gagging for the experience but I dunno. It turned out to be way better than I hoped and that's saying something given the fact that I had seriously high expectations due to literally waiting half my life to see this band.
I was completely expecting 'Bone Machine' as the opener, but we got 'La La Love You'! I would have expected a choice like that would fail miserably as an opener (well maybe not that bad, but you know what I mean) but as I listened to it and tried to contain my excitement at the experience, I felt it worked fantastically as the first track. From that moment, they had me!
For the rest of the gig, they played just about every single song (from the selection they are playing on this tour) that I wanted to hear, bar one (revealed later). They even played the not a regular ‘Is She Weird’ which is one of my all time fave’s!
I swear, when they played that and 'Monkey Gone To Heaven', I got quite emotional. The band then proceeded to play 3 encores which I really wasn't expecting and they seemed to play for very close to hours overall which was absolutely fantastic!
Friday - 4th June - Brixton Academy, London...
Friday was completely different, and for that reason it was very nearly as good. I think if I had seen the exact same set list, I'd have not felt the same, but as it was such a different experience it made a unique and equally great impression on me. Some of that was down to the fact that for the Friday gig, I was in the 'circle' balcony, which in itself gives you a different perspective of the gig.
Initially I felt a bit distant but as soon as the gig started, I didn't notice it at all. I was also next to some serious Pixies fan friends of mine who weren’t there on the Thursday and being upstairs meant we could easily have the craic and turn to each other for each cool moment we were experiencing which was great fun.
As for the set list, the only song that got played on Friday that I wanted to hear and didn’t get played on Thursday was 'Planet of Sound' which I think they pulled out in one of the three encores they played again. Overall the gig felt noticeably shorter but I'm not sure.
Friday had one of the best personal moments for me though, as when 'Tame' came on me and two of my friends felt the urge to do our Black Francis impression and scream the chorus as best as we could (this was completely unplanned and unrehearsed incidentally) and we clearly out sang Charles to the row in front of us who at one stage stopped watching the gig and turned around to look at us in amazement!
It was made even better when one of them turned around and applauded us when the song finished! We must have been somewhat in key...
Saturday – 12th June - Phoenix Park, Dublin...
I bought my ticket for this gig before I secured tickets for the Brixton gigs earlier this month. I may not have done so if I had know I would be seeing them in London, as seeing them as only a support act (albeit 'very special guests') in a huge open air venue surrounded by Red Hot Chili Pepper fans isn't an ideal situation.
However, I decided to go all the same as some friends of mine who didn't make it to Brixton were going and it was easy enough to hitch a ride and see what happened, and I have to say, I'm so glad I did!
It completely exceeded my expectations of how good they could be in the conditions. They really rocked us! It was absolutely fantastic! While the Brixton gigs were obviously better, I actually had more fun a couple of times on Saturday, as I was surrounded by devoted Pixies fans who sang along with all their hearts and pogo'd and danced around for the whole set! It was mighty craic!
The other big surprise was the length of the set. Nobody really expected them to play for more than an hour, but maybe the 'very special' guest label carried some weight as I was told they played for about 80 mins or so.
Of all the songs they could pull from the current tour play list, they gave the fans just about every song they wanted to hear. (I'd love to have heard ‘La La Love You’, and ‘Is She Weird’ again, but that's just my own personal taste).
‘Monkey Gone To Heaven’ was sublime, and even 'Here Comes Your Man' which I actually hate was so much fun when it's played and you're surrounded by Pixies fans dancing and jumping and having the time of their lives! ‘No. 13 Baby’ – this is just so fucking good live!!!
A slight point of interest, I once again gave my own whole hearted (and throat damaging) rendition during 'Tame' and once again I had the poor fuckers who had to stand in front of me turn and applaud my performance when the song ended! Watch out Charles, it seems you've got competition!
Overall I had the pleasure of seeing three very unique Pixies performances in two wildly differing venues. Each was amazing in it’s own right but when viewed as a collective I can honestly say that it is the best live experience I have ever witnessed.
This particular monkey certainly has gone to heaven...long live the Pixies!
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home