Pixies concluded Field Day festival last night (June 8), which was extended to two days for the first time this year.
The US band headlined the second evening of the event with a career-spanning, 27-song set. Backed by giant reflective silver panels and dressed all in black and white, the quartet – now featuring Paz Lenchantin on bass after the departure of Kim Deal and Kim Shattuck – did not engage in any onstage chat with the audience, but maintained a huge crowd throughout.
Opening with ‘Doolittle’ track ‘Wave of Mutilation’, the group played a host of other material from the 1989 album including ‘Debaser’, ‘Hey’ and ‘Gouge Away’ alongside classic singles ‘Velouria’ and ‘Caribou’ and cuts from recent album ‘Indie Cindy’, the band’s first new LP release in 23 years.
After set closer ‘Where Is My Mind?’ the band then all united at the front of the stage to take a communal bow before spending a prolonged amount of time waving to the crowd and walking to different sides of the stage.
Pixies played:
‘Wave of Mutilation’
‘U-Mass’
‘Debaser’
‘River Euphrates’
‘Something Against You’
‘Hey’
‘Bagboy’
‘Bone Machine’
‘Gouge Away’
‘Crackity Jones’
‘Mr Grieves’
‘Velouria’
‘Silver Snail’
‘Ed Is Dead’
‘Nimrod’s Son’
‘Here Comes Your Man’
‘La La Love You’
‘Greens And Blues’
‘Isla De Encanta’
‘Rock Music’
‘Money Gone To Heaven’
‘Indie Cindy’
‘No 13 Baby’
‘Cactus’
‘Caribou’
‘Vamos’
‘Where Is My Mind?’
Australian quintet Pond, meanwhile, played a sun-drenched set earlier that afternoon, bringing out a host of new material including an impromptu cover of a portion of Michael Jackson’s ‘Earth Song’. New tracks included ‘Heartbreaker Girls’ and ‘Heroic Shart’, which was introduced by singer Nick Allbrook, who was covered in silver face paint, by saying, “You can make your own interpretation of what shart is. Shit fart?” Guitarist Joseph Ryan then went onto apologise for the band’s extreme moves by saying they’d been “watching Spinal Tap solidly for the last 30 hours”.
Later, The Horrors were one of several bands who battled against a slightly unresponsive crowd, with singer Faris Badwan declaring “this is a Mexican stand off” halfway through the band’s Main Stage set. Playing against a black and white, wavy backdrop, the band played a ‘Luminous’-heavy set including ‘I See You’ and ‘So Now You Know’ and drew a sizeable but quiet crowd.
Temples played the same stage during the afternoon heat wave and also commented on the audience’s relative quietness, joking “chill out – don’t get too excited” after a particularly sedate response. Bringing out the likes of ‘Move With The Season’ and ‘Keep in the Dark’ – both taken from this year’s debut ‘Sun Structures’ – and previous single ‘Mesmerise’, which was given a hugely extended instrumental jam outro, the band finished with debut single ‘Shelter Song’, which was met with a more audible reaction.
Over on the Shacklewell Arms stage, Drenge packed out the tent to capacity for their mid-afternoon slot, while Telegram played two relatively new tracks entitled ‘Inside Outside’ and ‘Godiva’s Here’ on the same stage earlier that afternoon.
On Saturday (June 7) festival saw performances from Warpaint, Blood Orange and Courtney Barnett and was headlined by Metronomy.