black francis, xx teens

The huge venue improves their live sound, opening it up and making it’s intricacies decipherable. Having said that, understanding XX teens might just give you the fear: they deal in panic attack pop music, like an out of control hangover that’s got a perversely amusing mind of it’s own. “Play some Pixies you fat bastard!” At this, Black Francis, formerly Frank Black, puts down his guitar and looks through the crowd, scanning to see where the rogue voice came from. “Come on, play ‘Where Is My Mind!” Black identifies the drunkard, and fixes him in a stare from behind his appropriately Black sunglasses. “Fat bastard?” he replies, “I’ll tell you who a fat bastard is. Van Morrison. I went to see Van Morrison live and he didn’t play Brown Eyed Girl, man. Infact, he didn’t play any hits at all!” He laughs like Jack Nicholson, straps the guitar back on and zooms back on with what is - unrepentantly - a Pixies free set. Tonight, Black Francis is taking it easy. He knows he’s survived his former band’s reunion with his credibility intact and his artistic currency increased. And with a set drawing largely from songs he’d conceived of as a new Pixies record, no-one’s complaining about a lack of electricity in the air either. Black’s three-piece band is lean and mean, and although you get the feeling that just a smidgen of lead guitar would give proceedings a 3D edge, there’s no denying the full rock throttle of ‘Threshold Apprehension’. The song, a favourite from his Bluefinger LP, allows Black to scream like a banshee – and no one can ‘do the banshee’ like he does. And that’s your lot: there’s no encore, although there was a ‘precore’ earlier. There are no Pixies songs, although there were some songs written for the Pixies. You see, Frank Black likes to do things back to front - and as Black Francis, he’s pulling it off. PHOTO BY MARTIN HILLS