An early birthday present to myself.

I don't know where The Pixies rank on my All Time Favorite Bands list, but they're pretty high up there. When I semi-retired from concert-going, I said that it would have to be somebody really special like The Pixies to get me to go to a concert. I was seriously shocked last Summer when I saw that they would be playing in Louisville, and two days before my birthday no less! Since I'm on their e-mail list, I could have gotten a ticket during the first pre-sale, but the price was so outrageous that I thought, "Regular sale price MUST be cheaper!" It should be noted that the special pre-sale price also included a special t-shirt. The actual price when they went on sale wasn't much lower. I was really hoping to get two tickets so I wouldn't have to sit next to a stranger, but could only afford one. I almost got a cheaper ticket, but figured, "Fuck it, it's an early birthday present to myself, might as well go for the gusto!", and got the more expensive one.

So how was the show? I knew that they were going to play the entire Doolittle album along with a lot of B-sides, which I didn't even know that they had. One of the B-sides was the "UK Surf" version of "Wave Of Mutilation", which meant that they played "Wave Of Mutilation" in some form twice. They did some some songs from Come On Pilgrim and Surfer Rosa, and that was it. I was a little disappointed that they didn't do anything off of Bossanova or Trompe Le Monde, but other than that it was a great show! I did come across one guy after the show who was absolutely pissed that they didn't do more songs. I wanted to smack him, and tell him, "Dude, you sound like a little bitch!" Seriously, this guy was even more pissed than I was when I saw Queens Of The Stone Age in 2007 and they didn't do anything off of "Rated R". But then again, "Rated R" was (IMO) the best album of the 2000s, and I was having some serious anxiety issues that night. I don't know what this other guy's excuse was.

Oh, and the sound was really good. Opening band Surfer Blood were pretty enjoyable, but with as good as the sound mix was, I couldn't help but think as I always do when I see a recent band, that "There's no way that their CD sounds as good as this does."

Update: Thinking back on it, I think my favorite thing about the show were the little things, like hearing Black Francis whistle during "La La Love You", or hearing Kim Deal do her vocal bit during "Where Is My Mind?". They could have just as easily sampled those things, but hearing them actually do it was a hoot.


In other news, the first thing I did when I went out was to go apply for a Picker/Packer job somewhere. There was a question asking if I had ever been fired or asked to leave a job, and I was truthful with my answer. They took me back to interview me, but I wasn't there very long. The woman I talked to said that the company was still technically in bed with the company that fired me, so hiring me wouldn't be possible. I thought to myself, "Well, that was a fucking waste of time!" :/