Pixies live at Glasgow SECC

The SECC was the site of a notorious Pixies gig in 1991 when the stage collapsed after 3 songs. This was their first show at the venue since then. I saw the Pixies at their reunion show during the 2004 T in the Park festival. I also had tickets to see them in Edinburgh in 2005 but I was unable to swap my on-call shift at work so I had to give the tickets away.

On this tour the Pixies are playing all of Doolittle and appropriate B-sides. The support band was Sons & Daughters who have put out a couple of good albums. I missed a bit of their set although I liked what I heard.

The Pixies came on to some old cinema footage. I think it was part of Un chien andalou, an old French surrealist film that Salvador Dali contributed to (confirmed by checking wikipedia and recognising the images). They started with Manta Ray and Weird at my school before playing other B-sides that I didn't recognise.

In the 5 years since the T in the Park show the live force of the Pixies has improved. They were much tighter and the sound was great (unusual for the SECC). They played Doolittle in order (I think) before giving us an encore of the UK surf version of Wave of Mutilation and Into the White.

It might have ended there but Glasgow has enthusiastic crowds. They came back and played another 7 songs with the hall lights up. This second encore was loud and energetic and included Nimrods son, Broken Face and Where is my mind? It was very good and it made me very happy.

The full setlist is below


Dancing The Manta Ray
Bailey's Walk
Weird At My School
Manta Ray
Debaser
Tame
Wave Of Mutilation
I Bleed
Here Comes Your Man
Dead
Monkey Gone To Heaven
Mr Greives
Crackity Jones
La La Love You
No. 13 Baby
There Goes My Gun
Hey
Silver
Gouge Away
Encore:
Wave Of Mutilation (UK Surf)
Into The White
Encore 2:
The Holiday Song
Nimrod's Son
Caribou
Broken Face
Something Against You
Vamos
Isla De Encanta
Where Is My Mind?

I found the setlist at
http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/pixies/2009/secc-glasgow-scotland-3d7f95b.html#


Addendum

After a comment I did a search to find out who supported the Pixies in 1991 when the stage collapsed and it seems to have been Teenage Fanclub and Cud

The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

I didn't want to say this was a bad book but it is. It's not as good as The Da Vinci Code or Angels & Demons. The plot doesn't really go anywhere and seems to end a bit too early. Avoid.

I guess the film will be worse.

Dan Brown likes Masons though.

District 9 website

This promotional website for the film is pretty cool

http://www.mnuspreadslies.com/

Check it out

Transition by Iain Banks

I've been going through a bit of an Iain Banks phase at the moment, reading all his science fiction books written with the 'M' middle initial, that I had previously ignored. I've always kept fairly up-to-date with his more mainstream 'literary' novels.

Transition (published without the middle initial) falls somewhere between his mainstream and science-fiction works. Transition is structurally ambitious with a self-confesed unreliable narrator and numerous different story strands that appear in different chronological orders. The story is told from several points of view and I found myself having to flip back a few pages to check what was going on once or twice.

The main characters in the book can move between different realities or universes. To do this they take a drug that lets them control the mind of a person in an alternate reality. There are communist realities and nazi realities. It's all a bit complicated and could be easier to understand with a diagram. A good plan is to stop trying to understand it and just enjoy the book.

The story deals with an organisation called the Concern that tries to improve realities by selected interventions. Something seems to have gone wrong in the Concern and one man tries to find out what the problem is.

This may not be Banks most accessible book but it is still good fun. Start with The Crow Road or Complicity if you've not read any of his work before. The Wasp Factory is also a classic (I did my higher dissertation on it about 16 years ago). Transition is also notable for the new interpretation of the term 'multiple orgasm' amongst the members of the Concern.

http://www.iain-banks.net/

District 9 - film review

This film was made on a low(ish) budget but it's great. It's about an alien race who have landed in South Africa during the 1980s and now live in slums outside Johannesburg. It's shot in a grim videolike manner and it looks like a documentary. The casual racism of the humans who make derogatory comments about the 'prawns' feels real. Watching the humans kill a bunch of alien eggs while laughing about abortions is fairly unsettling.

The story is good and it's a fast-moving film with a few unexpected twists. I loved it and I hope to see it again. I also hope they make a sequel.

Public Image Limited tickets

I have PIL tickets for Glasgow. This, in some ways, compensates for my old age.

Better than the Pistols (sometimes).

see http://www.pilofficial.com/

http://www.fodderstompf.com/fodhome.html

http://www.johnlydon.com/jlhome.html

I am older

oh fuck - 32

Nick and Noras infinite playlist

I picked up this DVD yesterday and I liked it. It's a bit of a chick flick but it was good fun. I liked the alternative music based storyline and I enjoyed the soundtrack.

Worth seeing.

Cool dead guy

A good friend of mine died 11 years ago today. He fell out a window at a party.

He bought me a ticket to the last Glasgow Ramones gig and went to see Sonic Youth with me. He was a good guy.

RIP

Big A, Little A by Crass

Seeing Jeffrey Lewis during the week made me dig out my Crass records and inspired me to write about my favourite Crass track.

I first heard Big A, Little A on a compilation tape when I was 12. I was immediately drawn to the bouncy music and the intelligent lyrics. Big A, Little A was originally a 7" single in 1981 with Nagasaki Nightmare on the other side. For anti-capitalist anarchists Crass were fairly commercially successful and the single was an indie chart number 1 in the UK. The song also appeared on the Best Before compilation.

Big A, Little A is about being an individual and living your life the way you want to live. The song deals with the idea that religion is a means of social control and showcases a dislike of the monarchy and the British government personified by the then prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

Some of the lyrics to the song are beautiful. My favourite couplet is below -

Be exactly who you want to be, do what you want to do
I am he and she is she but you're the only you
No one else has got your eyes, can see the things you see
It's up to you to change your life and my life's up to me

The 'no one else has got your eyes' line gets me every time. People are beautiful because they are unique and have their own views and opinions on things. This song is about having the freedom to live your life in your own way.

The next few lines are great too:

The problems that you suffer from are problems that you make
The shit we have to climb through is the shit we choose to take
If you don't like the life you live, change it now it's yours
Nothing has effects if you don't recognise the cause
If the programme's not the one you want, get up, turn off the set
It's only you that can decide what life you're gonna get
If you don't like religion you can be the antichrist
If your tired of politics you can be an anarchist

This song may be unlistenable noise rock but it is inspirational. I love it. I suggest that you track it down and give it a listen. If noisy punk is not your thing look out for the Jeffrey Lewis folk version on '12 Crass songs'.

drphunk

http://www.southern.com/southern/label/CRC/