Pixies create a 1990s time machine at MGM Music Hall at Fenway
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Pixies frontman Black Francis invited guests to step into a time machine set to 1990.
Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff
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The galloping Western/surf chug 'Cecilia Ann' burst out of the gate, and 'Velouria' didn't roar so much as scream, while the short and sweet 'Allison' played as a beach-party rave. Joey Santiago spat out little curlicues on his guitar as bassist Emma Richardson dug a trench deep enough for 'Is She Weird' to move through, and Santiago's ringing two-note figure in 'The Happening' repeated so much that it began to sound like shattered glass. The guitars were mixed hot enough throughout to give them a visceral, tactile charge.
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'Havalina' signaled the end of 'Bossanova,' but there was no time to linger on what might have been a nearly serene comedown; 'Here comes 'Trompe le Monde,'' said Francis. (The ringed planets hanging behind the band as their only stagecraft rotated to become the giant eyeballs of that album's cover.) The warped, art-rock wallop of the title track, and the dead-eyed roar and strangled leads of 'Planet of Sound' unspooled quickly, and when manic screamer 'The Sad Punk' slowed down, it felt drunk, with the instruments wobbling against one another.
Since the abrupt ending of 'Trompe le Monde' closer 'The Navajo Know' would have made for an unsatisfying sendoff, Pixies sweetened the pot, first with the dreamy and harsh spiral of 'In Heaven' and then with gimmes 'Here Comes Your Man' and 'Where Is My Mind?' plus 'Into the White,' a b-side trifle that they still played the hell out of.
Pixies drummer David Lovering.
Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff
The house lights came on in full during that last song and remained up for the wild 'Debaser,' where David Lovering's drums felt like they were going to spring right off the stage and the crowd exploded every time Francis spat out the lyric 'chien!'
They didn't need it to be dark to imagine that it was still 1990. They were already there.
Momma opened with a pitch-perfect recreation of '90s-style alt/indie that they could have thawed out from 30 years ago. Their gauzy churn might have landed them a gig at the 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' rock club the Bronze, with a touch of Veruca Salt in their dissociated harmonies.
PIXIES
With Momma. At MGM Music Hall at Fenway, Friday.
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Marc Hirsh can be reached at
Pixies frontman Black Francis.
Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff
Here's the setlist from Friday night, according to
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