If I could, I would have Kim Deal narrate my day the way she did last night at Hammerstein Ballroom, in her soothing, familiar monotone: "We're more than half way through..." In All-Tomorrow's-Parties fashion, the Pixies have reunited for the 20th anniversary of the release of Doolittle, playing the album in its entirety for a nine city US tour, after a successful preview in the U.K. this past summer. The timing for the pre-Thanksgiving New York City shows seems appropriate—I've never seen a crowd so hungry that the pit filled to the brim for the opening act and even seated sections overflowed with bodies. After a short, slightly disturbing clip from 1929's silent film Un Chien Andalu, directed by Luis Bunuel, inspiration for the maniacally-howling hit "Debaser", the Boston-bred foursome stepped onstage and performed a few B-sides before tearing into the album, cheered on for the full ninety minutes by a crowd that may have known the lyrics better than the band members themselves. At one point during the B-sides, Deal remarked that "some of these songs are so obscure, we had to relearn them." And if the music weren't enough, the performance was set to a mesmerizing backdrop—dripping blood during "I Bleed," a heart dancing for "La La Love You," and bobbing band member heads during "Here Comes Your Man." For fans left begging for more (when it comes to the Pixies, two encores are hardly enough), Minotaur is already on pre-sale, a boxset including all five studio albums, artwork from Vaughan Oliver (who did all the cover art for their albums), and a DVD of a 1991 Brixton Academy show among other accoutrements. Hello, ultimate Christmas gift. Check it out at: www.ainr.com.
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