Pixies
Village Underground, London
15/06/2009

Tonight is Pixies geekboy dreamland – as The Fly walks into Village Underground, an art gallery-cum-venuespace sitting at the end of a hidden cul-de-sac in Shoreditch, we’re greeted by the sight of Frank Black and Kim Deal making their way round the venue with a notepad and a pen, asking fans what they want to hear tonight. A worthy comparison for which is difficult to fathom – Luka Modric just about to take a penalty to relegate Arsenal, ducking into the crowd and saying “which way should I put it, Niall?” perhaps, or Megan Fox taking a detour off the red carpet and asking if I’d mind pulling out her wedgie, maybe - Pixies laying down their back catalogue in front of you and saying “take your pick” is a Pixie fanboy’s wet dream. And there’s lots of Pixie fanboys here tonight. But, crucially, whilst you can see the look on everyone’s face as they strain to remember that b-side they hope no-one else has ever heard of (“The early demo version of ‘Debaser’ please! Before it had a chorus! And a verse!”), the culminating setlist is perfect, the Best Of The Best Of – one alt.rock classic careening amazingly into the next.

The reason they’re in these unusually intimate surroundings – the crowd is around the 300 mark – is that tonight is the launch party for their new behemoth boxset, ‘Minotaur’, which collects all their five 4AD albums and a whole shitload more in one place in one spanking set. Vaughan Oliver’s Pixies artwork hangs off the walls in giant art installations, and when the band take to the stage at around 9pm, no-one is really quite sure what to expect. They waste no time, though, in demonstrating that it’s not gonna be stripped-down, nor is it gonna be one for B-Side baiting purists – before she’s even picked up her bass, Kim Deal is letting out the falsetto holler that opens up ‘Where Is My Mind’, Frank Black strumming it nonchalantly into life. From then on, the next 45 minutes are a mind-blowing treat; ‘Hey’ is second up, its angular swoon bouncing off the venue’s lanky walls, then the wicked seethe of ‘No 13 Baby’ amps up the atmosphere, it’s outro still sounding like a thousand brilliant guitar parts even though we can only see two guitarists onstage.

The verbal spars between Frank Black and Kim Deal over what to play next are equally as thrilling – watching two rock superheroes having a chat over which one of their gargantuan (there’s no point downplaying this, y’know?) classics they should play next is a bit mind-boggling. ‘Monkey Gone To Heaven’, ‘U-Mass’, and ‘Debaser’ follow in a three-song blast that anyone, anywhere would struggle to match. And, yeah, that includes Blur, down the road at Rough Trade East. It’s perfect, even more so when Kim Deal completely fucks up final song ‘Wave Of Mutilation (UK Surf)’ and you’re watching one of the greatest bands ever completely disintegrate and have to start the song again. They do, and with no four-stringed hiccups, it ends a thrilling, unique set that shows Pixies’ power still doesn’t depend on arena-sized audiences. Their songs, and the calculated fury with which they play them, are at the centre of their genius. Tonight is a wonderful reminder of that.

Niall Doherty