A lovely late summer night, downtown Raleigh. Fazerdaze opened, though we missed most of her set because we misremembered when it started. What we heard was good, though. I think the kids call it "dreampop" ?

Then, the mighty Spoon played a nice long set. A somewhat rowdier, harder-rocking selection of songs than I've heard them play before. They sounded great, although the venue sounds way way too fucking loud. The sound level app on Mrs' watch kept telling her it was dangerous.

So, I went on an epic quest for earplugs. I had some in my car, but they weren't going to let me back in if I went to get them. After much walking around and asking I found some at a strange booth called the "Upgrade hut", which looked like it was all about venue promotion. Whatever.

Earplugs in, the Pixies came on. They sounded like utter garbage. Frank Black's voice was inaudible and the guitars were mixed terribly. I was sadly disappointed. Another great band cashing in on their past.

Then I took the earplugs out to test the volume situation. And the sound was amazing! The guitars were perfect, Frank Black's voice was definitely aged, but also definitely capable of selling all the screaming and shouting you'd want. But, it was still too fucking loud. They played a long satisfying chunk (20+ songs) of old classics before getting into anything new (aka post-Kim Deal). While there will always only be one real Pixies bassist, current bassist Emma Richardson did a good job doing lead vocals on 'In Heaven' (from David Lynch's "Eraserhead") and Neil Young's "Winterlong". So, a good Pixies show. And a good Spoon show.

But I think I am officially old.