PIXIES LIVE AT EDINBURGH’S CORN EXCHANGE

★★★★★ (5/5)

PIXIES PERFORMING LIVE AT EDINBURGH’S CORN EXCHANGE
PHOTOCREDIT: STUART WESTWOOD

This was my first time at the Corn Exchange to see a band, and what a band to see. Alternative legends the Pixies had sold the venue out and could probably have played somewhere even bigger. As a venue I was impressed, it’s clearly well set out with lots of space outside and multiple bars inside.

I got there a bit early only to discover the queue to get in was already massive, there was a buzz about this gig amongst the crowd that you don’t always feel. When I finally got my ticket and got in, I could see the venue was almost full well before the Pixies came on, not only were the crowd looking forward to it they were also clearly committed fans

I’m still trying to work out what I thought of the support act, Big Special. A singer and a drummer on stage with a huge amount of noise, a huge amount of attitude and an overwhelming need to get the audiences to put their thumbs up rather than clap. At times they were brilliant, at times they seemed a bit unsure of what they were trying to do but at all times they were 100% committed to their performance. I think I enjoyed them, and I could see many of the crowd definitely did but I’d like to see them again to be certain.

The Pixies came on stage at 9, in a very atmospheric start, building up anticipation within the audience. Black Francis is not the greatest communicator on stage, at least not via the medium of talking, he, and the band let their tremendous back catalogue do their talking for them. The confidence in the band is such that the second song, Here Comes Your Man, would be many other bands encore, the rapturous welcome it received showed how much it meant to the crowd and instantly turned the night into one to remember.

To throw Monkey Gone to Heaven, which was song along to with gusto by the whole crowd, and Debaser in quite early as well made it clear this was no greatest hits tour, they know how good their entire back catalogue is, and they were determined to show it off to its full extent.

They played a huge number of songs, feeling at times like they were almost trying to bludgeon the audience into submission but there was no need for that, from the off people were dancing, singing along and clearly loving seeing the Pixies. The atmospheric lighting helped as well, projecting giant shadows of the band onto the walls of the venue.

To say this was a tour de force is an understatement, gigs don’t get much better than this, anyone who left the show without having felt the music vibrate through their body should probably have someone check them for a pulse.

Great vocals, throwing in a Jesus and Marychain cover, and some tremendous playing all meant that this was a gig that will very long in the memory.