Ok, I know last post I said various things would be coming up but I felt compelled to ensure I got over my excitement of the Black Francis gig by writing this review first… so here it is:
Black Francis (aka Frank Black) – Wedgewood Rooms 14th Feb
Well, what can I say… it was a weird set but was a great night. I feel it necessary to hold the real gem of the evening until the end of the review, so please read on.
With a selected bunch of friends and work colleagues it was off to a near sold out Wedge to see the Pixies front man/rhythm guitarist on tour in his current three piece band. I’m sure the crowd would have been overflowing onto the streets had it not been for the day of affection that was upon us, and so those entertaining loved ones in other means missed a great show with openers Bobbie Peru kicking off the festivities. Bobbie Peru were also a three piece, providing old school rock n roll influenced garage punk rock with shouts and solos worthy of a headline act themselves… check them out.
Frank Black took the stage, wearing his shades and talking about the first half of the show being jazz with the second half being the opera (?) playing his solo material for the first half from memory pulling heavily from “Svn Fngrs” along with the beautiful folk song with the line “put the needle in my arm, and I’ll be dead and gone” - a song originally covered by the Pixies for their acoustic show at the Newport Folk Festival.
There were far too many dicks in the crowd talking incredibly loudly about when they saw him however many years ago, and how fat he was and such like, you know as if we were expected to give a damn! …these were probably the same people expecting the second part of the gig (ie the “opera”!) to involve a number of Pixies classics, which it didn’t, what we were however treated to was a stunning performance of the whole of Black Francis’ new album Bluefinger - which to be fair unlike some of his other solo albums does in itself sound very much like the Pixies, and it is a fantastic album to fall instantly in love with (it was Valentines day after all).
So with that all done and dusted there was no encore, the lights went up and we went home… encores are so contrived these days and as such I get more excited when there isn’t one. What Frank Black has been doing though is a series of pre-cores, low key acoustic street performances at pre-arranged locations a few hours ahead of doors opening. So with little hunting around on the internet to find the venue a couple of us were luckily enough to make it outside the One Eyed Dog pub for 5pm. This was just in time to see him don his guitar and play a set containing three or four from his solo career along with Pixies tracks Holiday, Cactus and ending on Nimrods Son. Apparently 1,000 people turned up at the Dublin pre-core gig which is cool but it was amazing to witness this so close up and personal (around 30 people were watching on, blocking the pavement to various passers bys disgust!) and to then go into the pub for a beer and hang out with the man who we’d see on stage a couple hours later was just a perfect way to end a hard day working in the office.
