The autumn saw two excellent gigs in wildly different contexts, confirming for me once again that I much prefer small venues to huge arenas.
The intimate
The mighty Pixies came to Geneva and found themselves in the fairly unexpected district of Thônex, in the eastern suburbs a stone’s throw from the French border. It was on one of the major tram lines, though, so logistically it was fine.
I’ve loved the band since my student days and had hurried to see them when they reformed a decade ago; this would finally be a chance to see them rolling out new material with a new bass player.
Arriving early at the Salle des Fêtes in Thônex and dodging the rain to get in, the friendly staff immediately suggested that my daughter and I might like to bag a seat upstairs on the balcony rather than take our chances in the pit. This sounded like a good move so we claimed a prize position in the middle of the front row.
The show itself was exactly as I’d hoped, full of colour and dynamics, classics interspersed with new pieces, played with precision and fierce concentration. The choice of material was typically eclectic with the odd cover thrown in but there was enough of the really old stuff in there to please the hardcore fans. I thought that Kim 2 was a fine choice of recruitment for the band, an excellent bass player with the right kind of voice to offset Frank’s, and was surprised to hear that she’d left the band after the tour. As always there was no talking between songs but that’s an accepted part of their style. They did seem to appreciate their reception.
I would have liked to hear Gouge Away, but still.
The immense
Shortly afterwards it was off to Basle to see what QOTSA had to offer. I’m not a fan of arena gigs, disliking the crowds and the distance and the vaguely impersonal sense of it all, but when bands reach a certain size their tours will necessarily take them to such venues.
The St. Jakobshalle was busy and bustling, the area made even more noisy and colourful by a quirk of scheduling meaning that FC Basel were playing a Champions League group match just over the road. Public transport to get there was crowded and it was clear that returning on foot was going to be the order of the day.
QOTSA’s “… Like Clockwork” album was by quite a long way my album of the year for 2013 and I’d been looking forward to seeing how well it stood up live alongside their older stuff. The short answer is that it merged seamlessly, Josh leading his band through a setlist spanning the band’s entire career with barely a pause and with frequent exhortations to the security staff to allow people to dance however they liked. Closing song Go With The Flow was a bit loose, but that was soon forgotten because of the power and precision of the encores, particularly a lengthy rendition of I Appear Missing, the stand-out track on the latest album, and a lengthier meander through the eerie and twisted Song For The Dead.
QOTSA are an intriguing mixture. They rock as hard as anybody but there’s a kind of of sensual groove to a lot of their songs and an almost psychedelic buzz underpinning it all. Their song filled the aircraft hangar that is the St. Jakobshalle but I can’t help but think they’d be a more intimate and intense experience in a smaller venue.
Pixies setlist:
Planet of Sound
Vamos
Distance Equals Rate Times Time
I Bleed
Indie Cindy
River Euphrates
Bagboy
Break My Body
Monkey Gone to Heaven
Ana
Magdalena 318
No. 13 Baby
Dead
Broken Face
What Goes Boom
Wave of Mutilation
Hey
Silver Snail
Blue Eyed Hexe
Tony’s Theme
Brick Is Red
Nimrod’s Son
The Sad Punk
Ed Is Dead
Greens and Blues
Debaser
I’ve Been Tired
Tame
Encore:
In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song)
Andro Queen
Where Is My Mind?
Encore 2:
Big New Prinz
Head On
QOTSA setlist:
You Think I Ain’t Worth a Dollar, but I Feel Like a Millionaire
No One Knows
My God Is the Sun
Hangin’ Tree
Burn the Witch
I Sat by the Ocean
…Like Clockwork
In the Fade
Misfit Love
If I Had a Tail
Kalopsia
Little Sister
Fairweather Friends
Smooth Sailing
Make It Wit Chu
Mexicola
Sick, Sick, Sick
Go With the Flow
Encore:
The Vampyre of Time and Memory
I Appear Missing
A Song for the Dead
(setlists courtesy of setlist.fm)