The 40 greatest concerts in Boston history: 17

The Pixies | Paradise Rock Club | August 8, 2005
By PHOENIX STAFF  |  October 25, 2006

concerts_17
Rock, stop, and bop: The Pixes at the Paradise, August 15, 2005. By Matt Ashare

pixies-live
Kim Deal, live at the Paradise in 2005, from the show's DVD
Unless you were lucky enough to see the Surfer Rosa–era Pixies at the long-defunct Green Street Station, this was a band who rarely seemed all that excited to be on stage during phase one of their career. But at this semi-secret show that was being filmed for a DVD, the reunited Pixies were having fun — lots of fun. And it was infectious. The set didn’t exactly start out well: they had to restart “La La Love,” a song drummer David Lovering was having trouble singing to begin with, and then trudged through “Winterlong” with Charles “Frank Black Francis” Thompson still wearing an acoustic instead of his trademark Tele. But they were messing around to get comfortable with the dozen cameras that were following their every move. Five songs into the set, Thompson grabbed his Tele and the Pixies rocked hard and good. They joked with each other; Thompson let Kim sing “Gigantic”; and they tore into tunes like “Wave of Mutilation” and “Bone Machine.” It was a triumph of sorts, seeing a band who’d influenced so many others finally getting their due — finally getting paid.
40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 29 28 27 26
25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Related: Post-punk pantheon, Joyride, Turning up, More more >
  Topics: Live Reviews , Kim Deal, The Velvet Underground, Bob Dylan,  More more >
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