“I try to think about tomorrow, but I always think about the past… about the things that didn’t last… if I could go to the beginning, then for sure I would be another way… make it better for today…”  Pixies (the “loud quiet loud” band) are a quiet band on stage in-between the generally quick songs, so we are left with the music, and the lyrics within, to try to figure out what is going on with them.  It was less than one month ago that they released their sixth studio album – their second without founding bass player and vocalist Kim Deal – and their first with new full-time member Paz Lenchantin.  The new album serves as fuel for this tour, with just four rare dates in Calif0rnia this month as prelude to many shows across Europe, England, Australia and New Zealand, keeping them busy until early next year.  So it was interesting seeing them and hearing some of their new music performed at Ace of Spades in Sacramento on Wednesday night.  The Pixies in Sacramento.  A rare thing indeed.  One of my all-time favorite bands playing in the city where I was born, and where I first saw the band way back in 1990, about a quarter of a century ago.  A different time.  So much has changed, but so much about the band remains the same.  I’ve taken the new album, Head Carrier, for a spin and those lyrics above stuck with me.  Interestingly, the vocals on that particular song are delivered by Paz, who is no Kim soundalike (on vocals or bass), though obviously the message in those lyrics is for Kim.  So the Pixies in 2016 is older, mature, different… and the band is at once both old and new; looking backwards and forwards.  The album sounds quite different from everything that came before (even 2014’s Indie Cindy).  And I think that the sentiments expressed in that song, “All I Think About Now”, kind of sums up this new iteration of the Pixies.  With this live show, the old and the new were mixed together to create a different sort of Pixies show, giving something fresh to both new and old fans alike.  But there are still those songs that carry on and remain classic to those who were with it at the time, in the band’s short-lived first incarnation in the late 80s and early 90s.  The concert was a tribute to that as well.

[Read more…]