Pixies

On Wednesday evening, we went to see Pixies live in concert at the O2 Academy. It was the first time that I had seen them since the summer of 2005, when they helped to break me out of the worst depression of my life, and with the recent trials over Brexit, I was hoping for something similar. Wolfie had never seen them before, while my Russian colleague and her husband, with whom I also work, were also in attendance.

I got out of work on time, surprisingly these days, and met up with Wolfie at around 6:30pm, when we got the opportunity to walk around the new-look Christmas Market. Without the German beer hut, there is an awful lot more room, making for a far more relaxing experience. However, it was a Wednesday evening and so it wasn't particularly busy. We were delighted to discover that the garlic bread concession was still there - when we saw the market being constructed we didn't see the distinctive red nipple tent, it's actually a wooden hut - and indeed this is where I met Wolfie, who was already queuing for some delicious piping hot garlic bread with cheese. This is the highlight of the market for me so I partook too, and it was just as good as I had remembered it. Despite the removal of the beer hall, the remaining stands were all largely the same as they usually are - the mead shop, plush place and ski hutte were all there, along with the marshmallow concession and the same eateries. There was an additional snausage shop though, taking it up to three, so we tried the new one which served long thin Bratwurst in crusty bread. It was little better than okay to be honest, with the snausage somewhat tasteless. Even though we were quite full, this was one of the few opportunities I would have this year to go to the market and so we decided to go get another snausage, at the hot dog style kiosk which is probably my favourite. It didn't disappoint, although this time you had to put your own cheese on it.

Doors opened at 7pm but looking at the queue, we decided to walk around the streets talking for a while, which turned into quite a heavy discussion. I'm disillusioned with a lot of things right now, and a lot of it came out, meaning that even when we entered the concert about 45 minutes later, we headed to a small underground bar downstairs and chatted some more. We grabbed a half of shitty Tuborg as we did, missing the entire support act as we thrashed through my neuroses, but it was ultimately worth it as I felt an awful lot better after our talk. The bar was quite a find, I think it's a nightclub usually, but nobody knew it was there so it was very quiet with no queue for drinks. There were a couple of nice ladies selling O2 priority services while we even started talking to some of the people around us, which was nice.

With Pixies due on at about 9pm, we headed upstairs about fifteen minutes earlier, surprised by just how busy it was. We parked towards the back near the sound system, but unfortunately my view was obscured by two tall blokes and a huge concrete pillar. The pillar was the least of my problems as I could position it between the band member in some dead space on the centre-right of the stage but the optical illusion of looking through a gap between two people's heads made me feel quite ill and by the sixth song I had to move. Fortunately my view after then was fantastic, pillar aside, and with the acoustics in the Academy exceptional, I could enjoy the rest of the gig. It was very high octane, with one song following immediately after the other and no banter in between, which made for a relentlessly breathtaking experience although there wasn't a lot of movement on stage either, I guess it was the fast-paced short songs that did it. They mixed mainly old songs with their newer material, which fit in perfectly well, while you know a band is good when they can get away with playing their best known song (Monkey Gone To Heaven) second. There were a range of other songs too and I was surprised how many I recognised, although with a large number of people singing, I do wish I had had time to listen to their back catalogue a little more. Still, I did buy their two latest albums and listened to those quite extensively, so at least I was up to speed on that score. Towards the end of the show, there were two women to my left who started getting belligerent with another female gig goer, and they were clearly sparring for a fight, with the girl being protected by her lanky boyfriend. They kept pushing for about ten minutes, shaking hands at one point but then coming back for more later, before finally buggering off.

There was only one encore song - Into the Light - and for this they pumped the auditorium with thick black smoke. This meant that you couldn't see three feet ahead of you, let alone the band on stage, but you could hear them playing, making for a wonderful atmosphere. I had never seen this done before - and as we had walked up to the venue we wondered why there was a lorry pumping gas inside - and it certainly made for an exceptional end to the show. What made it better was bumping into my colleagues as we walked around the Merrion Centre, with Wolfie being known to them but having never met him. We had a pleasant five minute conversation before they went off to the pub, with Wolfie and I going back to the car to go home.