I think a lot of fans were surprised when The Pixies got back together back in 2004. The band didn't really end things on very good terms, there were rumors of people not getting along at all and not wanting to work together and both Frank Black (formerly known as Black Francis) and Kim Deal (who teamed up with sister Kelly to form The Breeders) had gone on to reasonably successful solo gigs. Laying all the talk to rest, the band did get back together and once they hit the road, started selling out dates at bigger venues than they'd played the first time around and to considerably larger crowds. It appeared that time had been kind to the band, their music had found a larger audience since they'd split up likely helped by bands like Nirvana stating them as huge influences and by the use of their music in David Fincher's Fight Club. Thus, the title - Pixies Sell Out.

The set starts off in a rather irritating fashion. They start off with Bone Machine, a great choice and a great song, but this performance is cobbled together from clips taken from various shows on the tour, not just visually, but audibly as well. What this means is that every time the video clip changes, the audio changes with it and the sound isn't all that consistent. After that, thankfully, they clean things up and the bulk of the rest of the material in the feature comes from a single performance that happened in France on July 3, 2004. There are still some edits and references to other performances but the audio doesn't change with it, which makes it less irritating.

In terms of how the band holds up now that they're back on the road, well, they sound surprisingly good. Granted, Frank doesn't move much – he's a big guy and as such isn't going to be jumping around or doing kicks in the air like David Lee Roth (though it'd be funny if he tried) but the rest of the band seem pretty content to stand there and follow his lead of… ummm… just standing there. That's all they do. Thankfully, they sound good enough and tight enough live that quite honestly, it's enough. A little more energy and enthusiasm might have made this more fun but when it's the music that matters, which is definitely the case here, this performance delivers. The band is completely in key, the harmonies are great, the guitar is as fuzzy and other times as clean as it needs to be and the surf riffs sound great.

We're treated to the usual reaction shots from the crowd but one thing you'll likely notice is that there is virtually no interaction between them and the band. There's no talking between songs, not really any greetings or attempts to get the crowd pumped up, and no joking around. The band simply gets up on stage and does their thing. Again, however, it's the music that matters and the music on this DVD is great.

The complete track listing for this performance is as follows:

Bone Machine
Wave of Mutilation (the UK Surf version from Pump Up The Volume)
In Heaven
Something Against You
River Euphrates
U-Mass
Bone Machine
Cactus
Ed Is Dead
I Bleed
Monkey Gone To Heaven
Hey
Levitate Me
Subbacultcha
Dead
Gouge Away
Velouria
Mr. Grieves
Crackity Jones
Broken Face
Isla De Encanta
Tame, Here Comes Your Man
Holiday
Song
Where Is My Mind?
Vamos
Wave of Mutilation
Gigantic

While it would have been nice to see some interview clips thrown in here either between songs or at the beginning or end of the performance, we don't get any of that. The end result is that this is a slightly impersonal performance and we don't feel we get to know any of the band members already, but it's also a very tight, no frills concert that delivers sonically and that serves as a nice document of a band that really should be way bigger than they are.

The DVD

Video:

This 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen presentation was shot on digital video and unfortunately doesn't look so hot. The image is fairly murky and the stage lighting doesn't help matters much and it tends to blur out some of the fine detail that should be present on the stage but isn't. Shooting live footage is always problematic so it wasn't surprising to see that this DVD suffered from the same problem that hundreds of other concert DVDs also suffer from, but it was still a tad disappointing. There's some line shimmering but no mpeg compression problems and print damage is a non issue, resulting in an image that is quite watchable given the circumstances under which these moments were captured, but hardly remarkable.