Pixies at Aviva Studios: A hit-packed victory parade from your favourte band’s favourite band

It’s the hottest day of the year, and alt-rock royalty Pixies are back in town for the second night of their 40th anniversary shows at Aviva Studios.

Endlessly cited as one of rock’s most influential groups, Pixies’ legendary quiet-loud sound has been lauded by everyone from Radiohead and U2 to David Bowie and Kurt Cobain, who, on Smells Like Teen Spirit, famously admitted he was ‘basically trying to rip off the Pixies’.

With such a legacy, the group, now featuring founding members Black Francis, Joey Santiago and David Lovering, together with bassist Emma Richardson, could be forgiven for taking their foot off the gas and resting on their laurels a little.

That certainly hasn’t been the case, though. Since 2014’s Indie Cindy, the first official album since 1991’s Trompe le Monde, Pixies have continued to release new records every 2-3 years, the most recent being The Night the Zombies Came in 2024.

While a portion of the evening’s setlist is devoted to this later material, it’s quickly made clear that this is a unique chance for the band to properly dip into one hell of a back catalogue, as Black proclaims they’d be trying to pack in as many different tracks into the opening segment that they hadn’t played last night.

With that, we explode into a raucous trip through the 80s and 90s, with River Euphrates, Crackity Jones, The Sad Punk, I’ve Been Tired, Hang Wire and Down to the Well. While not yet touching on any of the ‘hits’, it’s an opening sequence that perfectly captures Pixies’ signature cacophony of distortion and chaos.

Bone Machine is the first of the biggies, unsurprisingly drawing the biggest reaction so far, which is swiftly outdone as the unmistakable bassline of Debaser kicks in next. There’s also room for a couple of fan-favourite covers that have become mainstays in Pixies’ shows: David Lynch and Peter Ivers’ eerily lush Erasurehead track In Heaven, and an adrenaline-fuelled version of The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Head On.

An enviable string of classics that most could only dream of ensues: Monkey Gone to Heaven, Hey, Here Comes Your Man, Vamos, Wave of Mutilation and, of course, Where Is My Mind, all get outings in the greatest of greatest hits parades.

Effortlessly swinging between this unrelenting, dystopian ferocity and melodic, pop-like surf rock, these tracks still sound just as vital, exciting and fresh, and as a live act, Pixies’ weird, brilliant magic continues to shine.