.
For the most part, the roughly 90-minute performance felt like it was over before it even really started as the quartet rattled briskly through the setlist, with the audience finding itself at the halfway mark before it even had time to catch its breath.
But as vocalist Black Francis quipped during an aside at one point during the show, Pixies “really only do short songs”.
The 60-year-old frontman began proceedings at the Town Hall with a brief explanation of how their Surftones’ cover, ‘Ceclia Ann’, came about before launching into a rollicking rendition of Bossanova’s opening track.
Francis offered similar insights into other songs when introducing them throughout the show, providing intriguing details to tunes such as ‘The Sad Punk’ and ‘Space (I Believe In)’, among others.
The audience learned, for example, that the “Jefery with one F Jeffery” that makes an appearance in the lyrics of abrasive sci-fi pop metal track ‘Space’ was actually a North American tabla musician named Jef Feldman the band once jammed with.
At times, it felt more like a personalised history lecture on rock culture than a music show.
Getting back to the music, though, the crowd was in full voice by the time Pixies reached ‘Velouria’, the third song on Bossanova , and it was virtually impossible not to find yourself chanting verse after verse thereafter, such was the infectiousness of the energy in the room.
Song after song, the hits just kept coming – even if the audience knew exactly what was up next.
Francis used his voice to good effect throughout the night, singing ‘All Over The World’ in a slightly higher octave than usual, lowering it expertly during the spoken word outro of ‘The Happening’ and even tuning his guitar to it before launching into a stripped-back version of ‘Motorway to Roswell’ later in the show.
His screams on ‘Subbacultcha’ were about as guttural as I have ever heard him – hard to believe for someone in their sixth decade.
Pixies guitarist Joey Santiago.
Tom Grut
Lead guitarist Joey Santiago was his typically immersed self, creating the epic guitar riffs on both albums that have become ear worms alongside the lyrics in their own right.
His work in the first half of the show was particularly impressive, though it’s perhaps not surprising given he has publicly declared the hazy surf rock of Bossanova to be his favourite Pixies album.
The frenetic power of opening Trompe le Monde tunes ‘Planet of Sound’, ‘Alec Eiffel, ‘The Sad Punk’ and the title track unsurprisingly left the crowd breathless, but it was Jesus and Mary Chain cover ‘Head On’ that really blew the roof off.
Indeed, it was almost something of a relief when the material slowed down a notch from there, and the crowd took a moment to bask in the waves of nostalgia threaded throughout the remainder of the album.
After 29 songs back-to-back without a break over the course of both albums, you’d think the four-piece deserved to put their feet up themselves and enjoy a nice cup of tea.
And yet they immediately launched into the UK surf version of ‘Wave of Mutilation’, delivering a breezy rendition that has become something of a band staple since reforming in 2003.
The popular ‘Where Is My Mind?’ followed next, which likely squeezed the last remaining fluid out of the crowd’s larynxes, before the band closed the night with Neil Young cover ‘Winterlong’, a single on the B-side of their Dig For Fire EP, which was a delightful touch.
Special mention must be made of the lighting work throughout the evening, with the crew producing a seamless, synchronous display of different palettes to match the idiosyncrasies of each track.
A night earlier, dedicated fans of US progressive rock unit Tool were in ecstasy upon hearing three songs that hadn’t been played live in more than 20 years.
Twenty-four hours later, Pixies’ fans knew in advance what they were going to be getting, and yet they left the show on Sunday night similarly enraptured by the magic they had witnessed.
This weekend in Auckland in November 2025 will likely go down in history as a weekend for music fans of all stripes.
