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The Pixies - Freeborn Hall, UC Davis, April 29

Reviewed by Dan Loeffelbein

"This is our song called 'Wave of Mutilation.' I don't think we've ever... ever screwed that one up before, actually," declares Frank Black. "We've screwed up lots of other songs."

"Yeah, but not that one," agrees Kim Deal.

The Pixies have aborted their second song of the evening after just thirty seconds. Something didn't sound right on this night at Freeborn Hall on the UC Davis campus, the last date of their "warmup tour" before the Coachella Festival and subsequent dates across Europe.

"Where'd it go wrong?" asks Black. Guitarist Joy Santiago and drummer David Lovering look on patiently.

"It was me," Deal replies promptly.

"You sure?" murmurs Black, looking down at his guitar. "Okay."

A huge grin breaks across Deal's face. She fiddles with her bass.

"We don't have to play it, right?" asks Black. " We could just go on to the next song."

But of course they play it. The Pixies are back after twelve years, and it doesn't seem like they've been away at all. Never mind that the band split in 1992 due to tensions between Deal and Black over songwriting. Never mind that practically anybody listening to the radio in the mid-'90s could recognize a tune or two by the Breeders -- Deal's side project -- while Black's following shrank to a cult status. And never mind Black's focus on his lower range as a solo vocalist.

Watching the band on stage, particularly when seeing the smiles during this exchange between Black and Deal, there is no hint of disharmony between band members. Furthermore, no one is trying to sneak a solo piece into the setlist, a la Don Henley. And lastly, Black has unleashed the banshee he kept pent up -- the wail formerly known by the name of Black Francis.

The Pixies were a prolific band nearly before they were even known. Combining a stopping-and-starting roar of guitar sound with a catchy structure and and a wailing frontman spouting lyrics frequently both bizarre and vague, the group were an inspiration to a generation of bands. Call them the godfathers of alternative rock. Nirvana swore by them -- Kurt Cobain declared "Smells Like Teen Spirit" a ripoff of the Pixies, and Dave Grohl (later of Foo Fighters) attributed the quiet/loud sound of much alternative rock to the Pixies. Members of Radiohead claim that band uses less guitar in its compositions today because they couldn't keep copying Pixies songs.

In 2004, the Pixies sound much as they did in the early '90s. Their hairlines have receded a bit, with the exception of Deal (Black gave up on that issue over a decade ago and typically sports less than a week's growth of hair). The Pixies perform their songs as if they'd written them only months before, and haven't dabbled with rewrites, medleys or special effects. Black reported in the summer of 2003 that the Pixies had been getting together for the occasional jam session, initial signs of now-tangible proof that bad blood has been cleared away.

As a fan from back in the day, this show was a delight to watch and listen to. What is remarkable is that the average audience member's age is roughly the same as it was in 1992. Granted, this show was on a college campus, but it was also the only scheduled concert in all of nothern California when it went on sale (two September dates in Berkeley have subsequently been planned), so I was expecting a older crowd from the Bay Area attending. The other notable thing is that the average 21-year-old college student was six years old when Doolittle came out -- and the Pixies are not a band known for heavy radio rotation. These kids learned about the band from another source.

And the kids know the songs, too; verse and chorus are matched by the crowd. The Davis show, like the other dates on this warmup tour, focused more on earlier material, with only three songs played from their last two albums ("Velouria" from Bossanova, and "U-Mass" and "Subbacultcha" from Trompe Le Monde, though the latter song was written in the mid-'80s). An interesting coincidence is that these last two albums were the releases upon which Deal disappeared from song credits, as Black's material took over.

Not many bands will try to fit 24 songs into an hour and fifteen minutes, and fewer do it without sounding fairly homogenous. The Pixies presented an assortment of moods, from the shimmering reverb of "Cactus" to the lazy drag of "Hey" to the scream and thunder of "Something Against You," which whipped a writhing mosh pit into a frenzy. The night's performance of "Debaser" was dead on, and suddenly so many people were jumping up and down that a listening session suddenly shifted to a lesson in weathering a storm. During the extended bridge/solo portion of "Vamos," Santiago borrowed a drumstick from Lovering and used it and his effects pedals to assemble a skipping texture of sound.

The evening's encore closed with Deal's chugging "Gigantic," a fitting ending to a grand night. As the song staggered to a halt, the band put down their instuments and gathered at the front of the stage. Smiles all around, they beamed and waved at the crowd, nodding and pointing at one another, directing the applause to each member of the band.

The Pixies are back, comfortable and in good form. And for now, they're getting along just fine.

At the time of this writing, tickets were still availble for the Pixies' second fall Berkeley show, on September 25th. Pollstar.com also lists a date for the 26th in Marysville.

Rating: (4 out of 4 stars)