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Perth MusicBlack Francis - Metropolis Fremantle - 28/9/08
Sunday 28th September 2008
Metropolis Fremantle
Black Francis
Violent Soho
The Pixies are legendary. Most music lovers around the world know how influential they were as a band and their music is still played on radio stations everywhere. So it was surprising to see Metropolis Fremantle only half full when the frontman of The Pixies, Black Francis played for the first time since The Pixies toured last year. Francis’ music is quite different to that of The Pixies but it was still disappointing to let such a talent get wasted in our city.
First on stage were Queensland youngsters Violent Soho and it was obvious why they were picked to support Francis. They played with passion and an internal anger that Francis himself was so famous for nearly 20 years ago. Looking like they were trying to bring grunge back into fashion, Violent Soho impressed the crowd that arrived early even though most stood to the side, possibly scared to get close to the crazy stage-energy of the band. For their final song of the night bassist Luke Henery made the most of the space in front of the band as he leaped mid-song over the stage barrier and onto the floor and finished the song there. The band look to have huge potential and it will be great to see them back this summer at Southbound.
As Francis walked on stage the empty space in front had completely disappeared and a mighty cheer greeted him. For 30 minutes Francis played solo covering a bunch of his solo songs as well as a handful of Pixies songs. These included Cactus, Wave Of Mutilation, The Holiday Song, Mr Grieves, Velouria and the intro to Where Is My Mind. There was also plenty of banter in between songs and it was obvious Francis knew how to work a crowd, even if it was fairly small. His backing band of bass and drums then joined him and the set continued. A lot of songs from his previous two solo releases, Bluefinger and Svn Fngrs, were played and I mean a lot. The second part of his set went for over an hour with few gaps between songs and even diehard fans were starting to feel it was dragging. As he finished the crowd cheered Francis like he was a hero and pretty much everyone went home satisfied with the night.
