Pixies

Pixies with Kurt Vile and The Violators //
Hollywood Palladium – Los Angeles
June 20th, 2025 //

Is it just us or does live music sound better in the summer?

So far we have already witnessed a number of exciting moments in live music as 2025 presses on — from The Prodigy’s first headlining date on U.S. soil since 2017 (read our show review here) to Jack White’s electrifying run through SoCal (read our show review here) — but with the temperate season officially underway now, this is the time of year when it really gets the chance to shine in the hot sun.

It’s during these months when we seemingly expand our horizons a little more, and while we did cover their co-headline tour with Weezer when it rolled through LA almost eight years ago and brought out a sold-out crowd to The Forum (read our show review here), it’s not often that we find ourselves going to — let alone photographing — a Pixies show.

But with the alt-rock legends headlining the Hollywood Palladium at capacity on a Friday and Saturday night to mark the first two days of summer, even a more casual fan like myself was intrigued to attend at least one of them. This year’s North American tour sees the four-piece performing two-night stands in 14 cities over the course of six weeks with support from Kurt Vile & the Violators, which felt like a surprising choice to pair alongside the Pixies from our perspective but one I was all for.

Kurt Vile & the Violators

When you listen to Vile’s music, it’s hard to find a lot of common ground with what the Pixies do. This wasn’t our first time covering the Philadelphia singer-songwriter whose music floats between garage rock, indie folk and lo-fi psychedelia, although it had been nearly a decade since we saw him and his sidekicks also serve as an opener less than two miles away at the iconic Hollywood Bowl for the one and only Sufjan Stevens (read our First Times coverage here).

The former lead guitarist of The War on Drugs who gave us FOMO the following evening by having Adam Granduciel sit in on “Hunchback” hasn’t unleashed a full-length album since 2022’s (watch my moves) marked his ninth, but Vile did resurface more than a year later with his 2023 release Back to Moon Beach, which runs 52 minutes long but was still designated as an EP. His record label Verve, in fact, clarified that it was an “EP by no one’s definition but Kurt Vile’s.” Yet, a brand-new — albeit briefer — EP that features collaborations with Nashville musician Luke Roberts awaits on July 25th and while we didn’t hear any material from the five-song effort, the title track “classic love” has recently made its way into the universe.

Vile, as quirky and eccentric as he is considering two of his biggest hits are named “Pretty Pimpin” and “Loading Zones” for instance, has always played by his own set of rules and in many ways so have the Pixies after forming close to 40 years ago. That’s about as much overlap as we can diagnose between the two acts, but that only made for a more diverse and unique night of so-called “indie rock.”

Black Francis (lead vocals, rhythm and acoustic guitar), David Lovering (drums, percussion, backing vocals, occasional lead vocals and bass), Joey Santiago (lead guitar, occasional backing vocals and Emma Richardson (bass, backing and occasional lead vocals) have been revisiting a couple of their classic LPs — 1990’s Bossanova and 1991’s Trompe le Monde that were recorded in LA shortly after the band’s cross-country move from Boston “because the recording studio was there” — on the first night at each stop and with that in mind, there were few surprises to expect once they took the stage.

Pixies

When a band plays an album live from start to finish, it can be a double-edged sword depending on the context — and by that we mean if it was previously disclosed or not. While the aforementioned element of surprise disappears in the case of the former, there are certain deep tracks that have the opportunity to be revived and even stand out. Along those lines, we have heard how bands have to go back into the lab and relearn some of those songs, making it a fun exercise for the musicians to take part in.

And from our vantage point, it clearly looked like the Pixies were having a blast up there as Francis (born Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV) and company ran through one tune after another. The only question mark when they returned from a short encore break was what would be in store for the final 20 minutes … because they had to uncork “Where Is My Mind?” before it was all over, right?

That they most certainly did, as a cover of “In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song)” by Peter Ivers and David Lynch opened the four-song encore that sent us home. One of the highlights for us, though, had to be the ensuing “UK Surf” version of “Wave of Mutilation” on 1989’s Doolittle, which has been saved on this tour primarily for the second night in each city.

For one last taste we were treated to “Into the White” off the 1997 compilation Death to the Pixies that repeats the lyric “And there ain’t no day / And there ain’t no night” at the outset. They were fitting words to hear given that we had entered the Palladium in daylight and exited to nightfall as if we had spent the last four hours in a time capsule traveling back to the early 90’s. Too bad it was only temporary.

PIXIES

Setlist:
Bossanova
Cecilia Ann (The Surftones cover)
Rock Music
Velouria
Allison
Is She Weird
Ana
All Over the World
Dig for Fire
Down to the Well
The Happening
Blown Away
Hang Wire
Stormy Weather
Havalina

Trompe Le Monde
Trompe le Monde
Planet of Sound
Alec Eiffel
The Sad Punk
Head On (The Jesus and Mary Chain cover)
U-Mass
Palace of the Brine
Letter to Memphis
Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons
Space (I Believe In)
Subbacultcha
Distance Equals Rate Times Time
Lovely Day
Motorway to Roswell
The Navajo Know

Encore:
In Heaven (Lady in the Radiator Song) (Peter Ivers & David Lynch cover)
Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf)
Where Is My Mind?
Into the White

KURT VILE & THE VIOLATORS

Setlist:
Hey Like a Child (Kurt Vile song)
Bassackwards (Kurt Vile song)
Mount Airy Hill (Way Gone) (Kurt Vile song)
Loading Zones (Kurt Vile song)
KV Crimes (Kurt Vile song)
Like Exploding Stones (Kurt Vile song)
Pretty Pimpin (Kurt Vile song)
Wakin on a Pretty Day (Kurt Vile song)