At LONG last, the night of The Pixies was upon us.

Dalton and I feasted and then hit State Street and joined the already down the block line to get in.

I had never been to a show at The Orpheum. I was digging the old marquee. Very disintegration and preservation.

I got a great lighted marquee shot.

Our “we were here” shot.

That’s Dalton in his Flipper shirt and I in my Rolling Stones. Rockers to the core.

After getting inside and choosing a seat a handful of rows back from the “floor” area we scoped the merch table. I wasn’t blown away with anything at first (though I did go back later) and we headed back to sit and relax and take in the show that is a concert crowd.  There were people of all ages, demographics and style of dress. The people who show up in button downs and slacks always make me wonder if they are on a date and just wandered by and decided to check it out.

The floor area filled up and I was thankful that we were in a seat. At one point the tallest man in the Madison area sat in front of me, but luckily his buddy decided that there were better seats and they moved.

Eventually, the lights went down and the stage smoke which was already thick chugged out a new cloud and the house music faded out. Then music came on loud, but it was not Royal Blood… it was “99 Problems”. I don’t know if Royal Blood picked that as an opening song or what, but it played about halfway through then that faded out and Royal Blood, two guys, came out.

Within one minute I was shivering. They were amazing! Our view was horrible despite being several rows up.

I could just barely see their heads, and as good as they were I convinced Dalton to go to the back of the Theater where we would have a better view.

These guys were amazing. Did I say that already? It bears repeating.

I was afraid that the first 2 songs were the best and that the rest would be lame, but that was so not the case. The bass was incredible and the drums were pounding my chest and beating my heart for me. I was blown away by the amount of music that was coming out of these two guys. They sounded like a thicker “Death From Above 1979”.  At the end the drummer turned the kit around and played with his back to us while the bass player stood on something and towered over him. The set was over too quick.

I immediately went to the merch table and bought their vinyl.

I gripped it in my paws tightly as we awaited The Pixies.  I may have also succumbed to the anticipation of the show and purchased a shirt.

When they hit the stage Dalton and I were transfixed. The lights were cool and the music blasted hard. I took a non-zoomed shot to show our relation to the stage. We were pretty far back, but we could hear great and pictures were better than a row of heads.

The music was unfamiliar for several songs until I heard “Debaser”. Then it seemed to be a bunch in a row I knew, thanks to Dalton’s mix he made for me and the new album.

Frank was in fine form and was belting it out. The female bass player who was not Kim Deal was not bad, and the guitarist on the left was pretty good as well. The songs went strong then slower, then peaking again. It was like a good mix tape, but Dalton was disappointed in the selections a bit. It was not the songs he expected they would play. When they played “Planet Of Sound” I went absolutely nuts. That is my Pixies JAM. Woo.

The lighting allowed me a couple fairly good picture opportunities, like the cool blue shot above, but it was at this show that I decided I wanted a smaller good camera that I could bring to shows.

At the end the guitarist on the left had a long solo which included playing with his shoe and using the guitar cord (unplugged) to make some very odd soundscapes. It was cool. Then it was a bow to the crowd and the show was over.

It was a fantastic evening of music. The Pixies were great and Royal Blood absolutely killed it.

Big thank you to Dalton for the tickets!

Notice that my ticket was # 37.  Dalton got in on these very early.

Awesome show!