Live Review: Pixies - Castlefield Bowl, Manchester 05/07/22
Alt-rock legends Pixies descend on Castlefield Bowl for Manchester’s annual Sounds of the City festival. Dutch rockers and hometown heroes The Slow Reader Club backed them up.
Irrespective of one’s opinion of Black Francis’ fractious off-stage persona, there’s no denying that the enigmatic Pixies frontman is one of the most influential forces in alternative rock. Inspiring anyone from Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins to Wolf Alice and Radiohead.
Indeed, this influence is evident across tonight’s crowd, which sees members of various Manchester bands, and indeed local photographers and labels, representing the city’s music scene. Of course, the fact that homegrown heroes The Slow Readers Club are tonight’s main support could have something to do with it.
Arriving just as the band take to the stage at Castlefield Bowl, unfortunately missing out on Dutch rockers Klangstof who kicked things off, it’s immediately obvious just how far this band have come in the almost decade we’ve been following them. It’s also easy to see why.
From the cramped confines of pub venues across Manchester to arena tours with James and a sell-out two nights at Manchester Apollo, they’re proof to much of Manchester’s younger bands that it can be done.
And tonight, shrouded in smoke on a stage above a canal, it’s done impeccably. Though their set is comprised of material from across their last four records, including a live debut of ‘The Greatest Escape’, it’s the band’s pre-pandemic material that goes down strongest tonight; early outings for ‘Opened Up My Heart’ and ‘Plant the Seed’ elicit the first mass singalongs of the evening, while chants of “Readers!” permeate the gaps between songs.
As one might expect, they save the best until last - a triumvirate of bangers in the form of ‘I Saw A Ghost’, ‘On the TV’ and ‘Lunatic’ spurring the crowd into further singalongs. “Can I just take a photo of you all?” asks frontman Aaron Starkey before leaving the stage. Of course it’s a moment that band want to remember, but it’s also one the crowd likely will as well.
As it hits bang on 9pm, Pixies emerge on stage, launching immediately into ‘Cactus’, the first song of what promises to be a breathless and career-spanning tour-de-force of a set. A surprisingly early outing of ‘Here Comes Your Man’ sets the whole crowd singing, before a blisteringly fast ‘Nimrod’s Son’ sets a pace that doesn’t relent for almost 90 minutes.
Now well into their fourth decade, Pixies truly are a band that transcend both genre, and generation. We speak to a bloke who’s there with his kid, just as his dad had taken him to his first Pixies’ show. Indeed, it’s a testament to the band that their appeal is so universal, their influence so pervading.
Elsewhere in tonight’s set, ‘Gouge Away’ and ‘Wave of Mutilation’ form a heady if not bleak pairing as we near the halfway mark. It’s here that ‘There’s A Moon On’, the only material off the recently announced album Doggerel makes an appearance, one in which many people seem to head to the bar.
From here on out it’s something of an album-spanning hit parade for the Boston rockers. ‘Monkey’s Gone to Heaven’ is followed by ‘Bone Machine’, which in turn is followed by ‘Gigantic’, a track we’ve never heard them play live before.
By this point, the crowd are in their element, something only heightened via an outing of ‘Debaser’ as the sun begins to dip. ‘Hey’ signals the almost end of things, but as the last traces of sunlight disappear, and the unmistakable first notes ‘Where Is My Mind?’ begin to play, it sets the whole crowd singing back.
That not a single word was uttered to the crowd throughout tonight’s set matters little. It was a marathon set from one the pioneers of alternative rock, and even though much of tonight was focused on their earlier albums, it’s clear that even though the band have been doing this for almost four decades, there’s still plenty further for them to go. Exceptional.
Words by Dave Beech
Photos by Sam Corcoran
