Blog: Spare Ticket For The Pixies

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A week or so ago I sent my old chum Mr S Carter a "fancy a pint?" text and he replied with "fancy seeing The Pixies?" which, all things considered, is a fairly MIGHTY response. He had spare tickets for their gig in BRIXTON last night and, though I've never been a HUGE Pixies fan (although OBVS someone of my age, background and Musical Persuasion is pretty much a Pixies fan by DEFAULT) I thought it was likely to be fun. HE is always a DELIGHT to see, and also the OTHER Spare Ticket gigs I've been to this year (ELO and Wilko Johnson) have been pretty GRATE, surely this one would be no different?

SPOILERS: It wasn't.

I'd read up beforehand about the SUPPORT act, who were described as "making a name for themselves on the festival circuit supporting (terrible corporate indie act),(dreary Jools-approved indie act) and (I assume they're a Young People's Band)" so I was quite happy with MISSING them. We actually ended up being slightly TOO cool for school as our pre-gig CHIPS took longer than expected to arrive, so the Pixies were already ON when we got IN. The first thing I noticed was that they sounded a LOT like The Pixies. The second thing I noticed was that the audience looked EXACTLY as I expected i.e. like ME!

The venue was the Brixton Academy, which is a FANTASTIC place. The crowd was rammed right up to the bar area, so for the first couple of songs we couldn't really see much (we could HEAR fine!). However, as the usual audience CHURN went on we found ourselves moving gently forward until, about THREE FEET from where we'd started, we suddenly had a perfect view. It is a GRATE venue!

As I say, I've never been a huge Pixie's zealot and so was thinking there'd maybe be TWO songs I'd know - "Debaser" and "Monkey Gone To Heaven". However, it turns out they have approx THREE times as many hits as I'd remembered (i.e. 6), some of which were AMAZING. My favourite bit all night was "Here Comes Your Man" - MAN ALIVE but the MEMORIES were so LOUD in the room you could practically SMELL the Chips And Cheese at the Poly Bop!

There was also the usual New Material but to be honest it all sounded like The Pixies to me, and that all sounded PRETTY DARN GOOD. It was in fact a DELIGHTFUL evening - I can HEARTILY recommend this Spare Ticket-based gig going, it's a LOT of fun!

posted 29/11/2016 by MJ Hibbett

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