Last night I drove up to Mesa to go see The Pixies at the ampitheatre. It was my first time seeing them live, although I saw Frank Black and the Catholics a few years ago in Pittsburgh.

The show was awesome… it was like listening to a greatest hits album live.

Update: If you want a rough approximation of what they sounded like, go here for links to the mp3 and flac versions of an earlier show from the same tour.

Setlist follows:

Is She Wierd
Subbacultcha
Something Against You
Tame
Cactus
River Euphrates
Monkey Gone to Heaven
No. 13 Baby
Mr. Grieves
Ed is Dead
Planet of Sound
Caribou
My Velouria
Gouge Away
Isla de encanta
Broken Face
Wave of Mutilation
Debaser
U-Mass
I Bleed
Hey
Gigantic
Winterlong
Here Comes Your Man
Nimrod’s Son
Holiday Song
Vamos
(Encore)
In Heaven
Where is My Mind

They sounded fantastic, and good ol’ Black Francis didn’t even look as fat as he was a few years back. I guess they’re doing a lot of touring, so that’s a lot of good exercise right there.

Mesa itself is a strange place. It’s a suburb of Phoenix, really… so it’s all sprawl. Plus, they have a very high concentration of Mormons there, so it lends to the overall creepy atmosphere.