Black Francis/ Violent Soho
HQ
Monday 29 September



Single hetero women of Adelaide, you missed your chance. If you were looking for the place to find blokes from Generation X, the Black Francis gig was the place to be, with about 5 guys for every one female present. Such a strange conglomeration of alternative rock, guitar loving types had not been seen since the likes of the equally cosmetically challenged Dinosaur Jr came to town. On that occasion there was also no need for ID checking of the punters.

Opening act Violent Soho are a bunch of guys who are all still living in the early Nineties, and their sound and attitude reflected that. All old school gear coupled with cut-off army pants, they weren't hiding their influences - they were impressive and I am glad that now there's another band that I can say I'm a new fan of. A tight outfit even though they were throwing themselves around the stage, Violent Soho play grunge music with clear influences from Nirvana right back to The Pixies. It was refreshing to see another Australian band who aren't derivative, don't dress in a uniform and who play loud (we're talking Spinal Tap loud) original rock.

Black Francis strolled onto stage nonchalantly and even decried the small applause he received as "premature". Dressed in all black and comfortably holding his guitar it appeared that Black Francis (who was never thin) has continued to grow in girth since his last jaunt to this fair city for the Pixies reunion tour. One of the biggest surprises of the night was Francis' choice of opening songs. First up, he started with a rendition of half of Mr Grieves and then all of Cactus. Francis powered through about eight songs with just him and his electric guitar, blending many of the songs together to prevent applause. Pixies classic Wave Of Mutilation was still cool with lone guitar and Francis messing about with the phrasings of the song.

Finally the drummer and bass player took the stage during Los Angeles which badly needed the drum parts added but the band did not join in. The band version of Your Mouth Into Mine added much depth to the sound and signified the start of what Francis referred to as his "rock opera," which was playing every song off 'Bluefinger', the concept album about artist Herman Brood. Francis was in good humour and provided stories of explanation about many of the songs from his recent releases. Francis sang Threshold Apprehension with great passion and the driving bassline, melodic hooks and lyrics about "whores" would seem like a Pixies rip off coming from any other artist.

Seven Fingers allowed Francis' country influence to come to the fore while the sweet pop of She Took All The Money was topped off with the harmonica finish. The dumb bland rock of Tight Black Rubber which was the lowlight of the album 'Bluefinger' also proved to be so live and included the lyric that every Francis fan would recognise as a lie; "all killer, no filler". The tribute to Herman Brood kept coming as Francis raced through a cover of his song You Can't Break A Heart And Have It which allowed Francis to demonstrate that his blood curdling scream is still as brilliant as ever. An even stranger cover was of an even more obscure artist, Gary Green whose website Francis plugged (and I don't know why). Black Francis solo work will never garner him the critical or commercial success of the Pixies but he still knows how to keep his fans happy.

Sam Vinall/ Scott Berry