Pixies: The Piece Hall, Halifax – Live Review

Pixies | The Pale White
The Piece Hall, Halifax
21st August 2024

The massive summer of gigs at The Piece Hall in Halifax is drawing to a close with August Bank Holiday weekend looming. Pixies delivered a career-spanning performance which left no corner of their albums, or the market square venue untouched by their unique sound.

Support tonight comes from The Pale White.  The Tyneside trio consists of brothers Adam (vocals, guitar) and Jack Hope (drums) alongside Tom Booth (bass).  They have been touring on runs of shows with Pixies throughout 2024, so no strangers to the big stages. They certainly seem unfazed as they deliver a set of high energy rock tunes infused with catchy riffs, driven bass and super hi-energy drums. With a clutch of EPs to choose from their set is short. The 4500 strong crowd’s growing appreciation suggests they will have gained a few followers from their Pixies outings

The mono-winged Pixies P-logo adorn the huge TKMaxx stage throughout the night.  The testing of lights and checking of sound completed, the four Pixies stroll casually onto the stage. Audience interaction is rarely a feature of their gigs.  Black Francis (vocals, guitar), Joey Santiago (guitar), and David Lovering (drums) have trodden the long and winding road of their four decades-long journey together.  They’ve recently picked up Emma Richardson on bass duties with some big shoes to fill, having been previously occupied by Kim Deal and Paz Lenchantin

Unlike the support, Pixies have a vast back catalogue to choose from. Gouge Away kicks off the set.  This instantly demonstrates that a new bassist doesn’t mean new bass sound. Richardson launches into some of the most iconic and recognisable bass parts pulled from nine studio albums, with a tenth arriving soon.  The sound is still undeniably Pixies, throughout Wave of Mutilation and Pixified cover of Head On by The Jesus and Marychain. Backing vocals are also put to the test early on with a rip-roaring romp through Isla de Encanta

A defining feature of the band’s output is they have so many songs which are recognisable with only four notes being played.  Debaser has the crowd cheering after four plucks of a bass string on the same note. The crowd interaction goes up several notches with bouncing and sing-alongs from front to back of the huge Georgian square, and heading straight into Monkey Gone To Heaven also sends the more evolved primates in attendance up into the clouds.

No announcements or chit-chat between songs is a hallmark of a Black Francis performance. It allows for more songs, which is a bonus. When he’s at the microphone he has plenty to sing about in English, Spanish and the universal language of screaming. He also steps back between vocals and subtly shifts the focus to Santiago or Lovering’s solos. Between songs, there is nothing.  A tiny space awaiting the 4-beat intro from Lovering or the opening notes from Richardson is all that is needed between them.

Pixies sets are so huge it is difficult to catalogue all the songs that are played. Easier maybe to list the big hits (Velouria, Gigantic, Planet of Sound) that didn’t make the cut. New songs from the upcoming album The Night The Zombies Came appear.  The lead single Chicken and The Vegas Suite find space with tracks from their previous albums. Both fit neatly into the Pixies pantheon.

The set runs to 28 songs if you count the two versions of Wave Of Mutilation as the same song by ignoring the (UK Surf) bit.  No encore, no frills, just 100% Pixified goodness. The Piece Hall has seen so many great acts this summer but this feels like a huge highlight in a summer of highlights.

Pixies are on their website Facebook Instagram & X (Twitter)

The Pale White are on their website Facebook, Instagram & X (Twitter)

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Words and pictures by Neil Chapman (Unholy Racket). You can visit his author profile for Louder Than War . He is usually found on Facebook or Instagram and he tweets as @unholyracket