Live Review: Pixies at the Electric Arena, Electric Picnic

You'd be forgiven for mistaking Pixies' set at the Electric Arena last night for a headline stadium performance. Despite minimal interaction with their audience, Black Francis, Joey Santiago, Paz Lenchantin and David Lovering proved last night that they still are one of the greatest rock bands still around.

Opening with 'Gouge Away' to raucous cheers, they launched straight into a stunning, if a little perfunctory, set to a crowd hungry for it and more. Despite trimming their usual touring setlist from an immense 39 songs down to seventeen, Pixies still managed to serve up a taste of everything from their decades-long career, from latest single 'There's a Moon Out' off upcoming album Doggeral to Come On Pilgrim's 'Nimrods Son' and everything in between.

Pixies at Electric Picnic, September 2022. Copyright Laura Klepeisz/hotpress.com

It was an interesting mix of a crowd, from dad rockers to kids down the back holding their mammies hands, but all were 100% there to hear Pixies. Even a few lads near me, who I initially assumed were just killing time until Fontaines DC afterwards, were the loudest in singing along to crowd pleasers such as 'Vault of Heaven', 'Caribou', and 'Monkey Gone to Heaven'.

Saving the best for last, they launched straight in to 'Where Is My Mind' off the back of the equally iconic 'Here Comes Your Man'. Rather than finish on those two, as we all expected, they instead sprung 'Winterlong' on us to close, as Black Francis wrung some surprisingly melodic feedback from his guitar for an epic finish. Despite cries of "one more tune" and even a hopeful round of "Olé Olé Olé", the four simply took their bows after an hour of superbly played music.

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