The Pixies have been around since 1986, but in the past 40 years the influential alt-rock band had never once performed in Wilmington.
That all changed Wednesday, Sept. 16, when the Pixies played a thunderously entertaining set at Cape Fear Community College's Wilson Center, treating the amped-up crowd of some 1,300 souls to their signature mix of noisy, surf/punk-inflected guitars, poppy hooks and darkly evocative lyrics.
Singer and guitarist Charles "Black Francis" Thompson — guitarist Joey Santiago and drummer David Lovering are original Pixies as well — isn't known for his stage banter and in fact didn't address the crowd once, not that anyone seemed to care. But the frontman was in great voice, tossing in lots of throaty yips and yelps as his band
ripped through more than two dozen vital-sounding songs.
Starting with a mix of newer and lesser-known tunes, during which the crowd stayed largely seated, the band ended its 90-minute set with banger after classic banger, bringing the increasingly raucous mob of aging hipsters to their feet.
Taking the stage at 8 p.m. on the dot after an impressive half-hour set by Los Angeles band Fat, Evil Children, who opened the show with a throwback blend of grungy shoegaze and groovy alt-country, the Pixies started with bassist Emma Richardson (original bassist Kim Deal left the band long ago to focus on her group The Breeders) singing a spookily ethereal cover of "In Heaven" from David Lynch's cinematic shocker "Eraserhead."
It was a dead-on appropriate opener given that Wilmington is where Lynch's 1986 masterpiece "Blue Velvet" was filmed, not to mention there's always been something Lynchian about the Pixies: a mix of dark and light, appealing yet kind of dangerous, and not a little bit confusing. After all, this is the band whose bright-and-happy-sounding "Here Comes Your Man," which brought the crowd to its feet in jubilation Wednesday, was inspired by boxcar-riding hobos perishing in a California earthquake.
Then there's the Pixies longstanding fixation on all things oceanic, with lyrics about kissing mermaids and underwater guys dovetailing nicely with the Port City's coastal setting.
At any rate, Thompson, clad in all black with thick-frame black glasses, took over on lead vocals for the most part after the opening number, kicking things off with the devilish, bluesy stomp of "Cactus" as the stage was bathed in eerie orange lights.
The lighting for the entire show, which sounded pristine, was pretty darn sweet, actually, changing colors to fit the moods and meanings of different songs, and matching the band's epic cool. Throughout, Thompson's edgy acoustic guitar strums blended seamlessly with Santiago's understated guitar wizardry (he playfully offered one sequence of "slide guitar" using the cap from his head), Lovering's tireless drumming and Richardson's grounding bass.
Some of the band's more recent songs, like the apocalyptically beachy "Death Horizon," seemed to speak, intentionally or not, to the strange place some Americans find themselves in these days, lyrics like, "When you've done everything/ Everything is done," from "The Vegas Suite," evoking a spirituality soiled by the era of the endlessly unsated scroll.
Seminal Pixies songs like "Nimrod's Son" were lined up next to more recent numbers like "Greens and Blues," whose lyric, "If I ever seem a little strange/ Would you excuse me, please?" is a sentiment we can all get behind.
By the time the band got to such well-known rockers as "Wave of Mutilation" (played twice, once slowed down), Jesus and Mary Chain cover "Head On," "Debaser," "Hey," "This Monkey's Gone to Heaven" and "Where Is My Mind?", the crowd was in a nostalgic near-frenzy.
Spacey closer "Into the White" brought things to a climax while also providing a clinic in how to end a show without needing an encore. As the house lights came up to match the white light blasting from the stage, the band dropped their instruments to smile and wave at the crowd, basking in the love and acclaim.
The Pixies are nothing if not punctual and they played their final note right at 9:30 p.m. to get the crowd back on the streets of Wilmington at a very reasonable hour.
John Staton is the arts and culture reporter for the StarNews. You can reach him at jstaton@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: With signature sound and Lynchian cool, Pixies rock Wilmington | Exclusive
