Jay Blakesburg
In the second week of September when Calgary was experiencing a surprise late-summer snowfall California was subjected to its own extreme weather: record-setting triple-digit temperatures. The heat was so debilitating that when mentioning the possibility of flurries the Pixies could face while here on October 5 drummer David Lovering was almost giddy.
“No kidding really?” he says with an ecstatic tone. “Snow would be nice!”
It’s the only way the legendary indie rockers will receive a chilly reception. Their show at MacEwan Hall has been sold out for some time now because well this is the Pixies arguably the single most influential band of their generation (disciples include Nirvana Arcade Fire and really everyone). It will be the band’s first Calgary show in three years but more importantly the first time fans will hear any of their latest album Indie Cindy live.
In their initial run the Pixies only existed seven years. Remarkably they released a string of albums that at the time could only be topped by a peer like The Smiths. But their unforeseen split — announced when frontman Black Francis faxed his fellow bandmates in 1993 — left many fans blindsided.
“In hindsight all I can say is that I’m glad we did break up” says Lovering. “Just having us disappear and having this influence and all this other stuff is what made us come back in 2004. I think if we stayed together it would be a very different story. I’m glad things happened the way they did.”
When they did reunite in 2004 to tour many people including the band members themselves figured new material would come either soon or never. Lovering says they originally planned to get right to work on writing new songs.
“When we got back together there was an inkling of doing new songs together. But it took a long long long time” he says. “A lot of the reason for doing it was at the seven-year mark we realized that ‘Wait a minute hold on. We’ve been touring a reunion longer than we were initially a band at the beginning.’ And that was a surprise to us just because of that fact we said we can’t do this forever. We don’t want to just be a nostalgia act. We are still a viable band we still love doing this and have more to offer.”
According to Lovering as much as they like the new material the band won’t overwhelm fans with it. Instead they will pepper their set with just enough to give a taste to those still stuck in the past.
“Depending on the set list we will do a 70-minute set with four new songs or a 90-minute set with five new songs mixed in with older material” says Lovering. “That way it’s a bit more digestible for anyone that is at the show for nostalgia. And they’re blending in really well. We have fun playing them and the audience seems to like them. I couldn’t ask for more.”
Lovering and his bandmates Black Francis and Joey Santiago were fully aware that fans would be as cautious as they were excited to hear a new album 23 years after the last — especially considering the very mixed reviews (an A- from Entertainment Weekly a 2.5/10 from Pitchfork). But he doesn’t feel the band made Indie Cindy any differently than their previous five albums.
“We knew there was a lot of trepidation over doing a new album and that was the scary part of doing one” says Lovering. “I understand it but if you look at it Indie Cindy is the album after [1991’s] Trompe le Monde. Even though there is a 22-year gap it is the next album. It could have been the album right after Trompe at that time. So it was just a natural progression of the way it was. But as we were recording it we like what we were doing so that took away the trepidation. And we were very happy with the songs. We love recording and touring and I’m sure it’s going to happen again and again and again. Hopefully.”
