The Pixies show at The Fillmore died; the audience resuscitated it

Pixies’ songs are dark. They obsess over lust and shunned love. They are near-psychotic experiences that keep reason on a very loose leash. Their incessant sound simultaneously hurts the ears and brings pleasure. A sound that relates to the listener through their baser emotions, ideas and instincts, expressing everything that they try to repress. A sound the Pixies emulated, but could not recapture, in Detroit.

When Pixies played at The Fillmore Detroit, they played it like a recital. In sequence, they progressed through two studio albums — Bossanova and Trompe le Monde — as well as four other songs at the end. During each song, guitarist Joey Santiago and bassist Emma Richardson stood stock-still behind their mics, their attention consumed by their instruments. Frontman Black Francis