Not that it matters a jot: his band deliver thirty-six chunks of sublime noise-pop via a career-spanning set-list. Each song tumbles straight into the next in a nice nod to The Ramones’ frantic style of stagecraft.
For the first time, the Pixies are gracing a Dublin stage without talismanic bassist Kim Deal. As guitarist Joey Santiago remarked in a recent Hot Press, it’s a loss that the band are still coming to terms with. On tonight’s evidence, they’re bearing up very well. Their opening salvo is a delightful curve-ball – a ‘Big New Prinz’ by The Fall. The opening chords of ‘Something Against You’ send the Olympia into complete hysterics. What follows is a solid 90 minutes of back-to-back classics. As some wag said on Twitter, there were more highlights than a bad ‘80s hair-do.
The classics of that era sound extraordinarily fresh, especially anything off Surfer Rosa and Come On Pilgrim. If anything, it’s the overplayed indie disco likes of ‘Where Is My Mind?’ that sound ever so slightly over-familiar.
As for the potentially thorny issue of the new stuff, it all sounds great, with the exception of one unreleased acoustic Pixies-by-numbers song.
The set concludes with a double whammy of ‘Bone Machine’ and ‘Planet Of Sound’. The Pixies still don’t say a word, but it’s a heart-warming and spine-tingling moment as all four members smile from ear to ear and take a richly deserved bow. Come back soon you crazy diamonds.