Repent!

On Friday night, the 30th of April, I was lucky enough to be one of about 450 people to see the Pixies at the Glasshouse in Pomona. I think it was some sort of serious karmic payback for something nice I did sometime, because I was struggling for a ticket to one of their few shows. The Pixies - I realized this weekend - are, in fact, my favorite band in the whole world. I figured this out when I actually started to cry during "Where Is My Mind" at the Coachella festival. After this weekend, to the best of my memory... I've seen the Pixies live about 23 times. I'm a lucky girl.

I can't tell you why I love them so much. They scream and make a lot of noise and the lyrics make no sense (they sing about UFOs and art films, for example), but whenever I hear them, I feel an almost primal urge to jump around and yell and scream and I don't care if a hundred people are doing the same thing next to me. Sometimes they are beautiful and sometimes they are nuts, but I always love them.

I have my best friend Steve to thank for this. In 1987, he called me up in my dorm room in Berkeley. "Okay, you have to do this for me." "What?" "Go to the record store and buy this album: it's called Come On Pilgrim by this band called the Pixies and it has this picture of a guy with a hairy back on the cover." So I got off the phone, bought the record, began to follow the band around the state. If they came to California, I'd do whatever it took to catch all their shows - reschedule work, sell CDs for ticket money, reschedule midterms and finals. I took my little brother to see them (with Bob Mould) when they were touring for Doolittle; he was 14 and it was his first concert. I even (and my friends have heard this story alot lately) got a greenstick fracture in my foot after going to a series of shows (I was always in the pit). The doctor told me to take it easy, but I still had to more shows to go to...

This is the setlist as I remember it for the show at the Glasshouse. I have my pal Kerry to thank for me even knowing about it. They seemed to be having as good a time as any of us. I'm so glad that I got one more chance to be just a few feet away from the band, going crazy with a bunch of other excited, worshipping fans. I actually found myself yelling "Thank you!" when it was over.

I'm still smiling.

Bone Machine
U-Mass
Cactus
Broken Face
Isla De Encanta
Crackity Jones
Hey
Nimrod's Son
Debaser
Vamos
Wave of Mutilation (Surf version)
Dead
Number 13 Baby
Tame
Gigantic
Gouge Away
Caribou
In Heaven (The Lady In the Radiator Song from Eraserhead)
Where Is My Mind?

There was no encore - they just smiled, waved and walked away...