The Breeders

After a lovely warm day The Ritz is so humid it's quite unbearable. The unusual springy dance floor will not get much use tonight as people are near on close to passing out. Even the band say its hotter here than in Barcelona!

The band in question are The Breeders, and they are back to play their hugely successful album 'Last Splash' in its entirety. Not since 1993 has this band played this album in this way together. They even use the original mini moog during 'Roi', and in keeping with tradition they play the tracks as they did then, with bassist and drummer Josephine Wiggs and Jim MacPherson trading places during 'Roi'. "Now the bass is all sweaty!" jokes Wiggs.



It's only been 5 days since Kim Deal quit the Pixies after twenty-five years, and here they are playing the twenty year old record that was spawned during the start of the Pixies eight year hiatus. This 1993 platinum album shows that Kim was more than just the bassist and sweet voice that was heard opposite Black Francis' screaming. Joined again by her sister Kelley (as they did when the Breeders was first formed when the twins were teenagers) tonight's show is a must for 90's grunge fans. The Prodigy sampled two parts from it; the guitar part of 'S.O.S.' for 'Firestarter' and a sample from 'I Just Wanna Get Along' for 'World's On Fire'. This is not to mention the huge single 'Cannonball' and the equally brilliant 'Divine Hammer'.

The band are very smiley and friendly tonight, with Kelley having brief conversations with those on the front row, and Kim telling us about how they are playing the album as they did back in the day. Kim plays an acoustic guitar made to sound like a thundering electric, while Carrie Bradley plays the violin throughout, mainly noticeable during the country twinged 'Drivin' on 9', which in 2009 at the Latitude festival was played by Kelley.

There is a lot of information about the album during the songs, and jokes like after 'Flipside' "This is the end to side one!" If it wasn't dripping with sweat in here the crowd would be bouncing about a lot more. There really should be some air conditioning or something in here, I know it's an old building but it ruins the show somewhat.



The album sounds as good live as it does recorded, such is the attention to detail the band have gone into for this tour, to completely re-live it. As with most album anniversary shows, there is time for an encore. In fact there's time for two. I must say I liked the Pixies but I loved The Breeders, more of the same please!

Set list:
New Year
Cannonball
Invisible Man
No Aloha
Roi
Do You Love Me Now?
Flipside
I Just Wanna Get Along
Mad Lucas
Divine Hammer
S.O.S.
Hag
Saints
Drivin' on 9
Roi (Reprise)

Shocker In Gloomtown
Safari
Happiness Is A Warm Gun
Metal Man
Limehouse
Hellbound
When I Was A Painter

Iris
Don't Call Home

FUTURE GIGS