“You know what I do when I start to lose [the crowd]?” the artist formerly known as Charles Thompson asked semi-rhetorically, about three-quarters of the way through his nearly two-hour solo-acoustic set. “I play a Pixies song,” he replied. And with that, he launched into “Cactus” and then “Where Is My Mind?”

Truth is, Frank never really lost the crowd, a sweaty and elbow-to-elbow packed but adoring roomful of fans. He made that quip because he went on a little too long explaining the story behind “Angels Come to Comfort You” (about a Dutch guy who jumped to his death at the same Amsterdam Hilton where John and Yoko staged their bedside crusade). The “Storytellers” aspect to the show was actually a big selling point, especially when he talked about listening to the Ramones and writing to Joey Santiago in Puerto Rico just before starting the Pixies (”I Heard Ramona”), and when he referenced local legends Husker Du and Soul Asylum, the latter of whom he remembered playing with in 1988 (their Marshall stacks made a big impression on he and Joey). He let his final batch of songs speak for themselves, including “Burnt Out Rock ‘n’ Roll” and the encore with “Headache” and “Nimrod.” The latter was the only other Pixies tune I heard, though I missed about the first half-hour (covering the Basilica party). Other songs I caught included “I Burn Today,” “The Water,” “Old Black Dawning,” “Lolita,” “Massif Centrale,” “Los Angeles,” “Dead Man’s Curve” and “Sing for Joy.”

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 11th, 2009 at 8:09 am and is filed under Concerts, Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.