The last time the Breeders graced these shores was back in 2008. They played Vicar St. then too but they were touring their ‘not-so-great-so-maybe-they-should-stop-for-while-because-they’ve-lost-their-mojo-and-all-of-their-orginal-line-up’ album Mountain Battles. Thankfully tonight, their joyous and hugely successful 20-year-old album Last Splash is the focus of this recently reformed Breeders line-up.

The band took to the stage at 9.32pm (by my watch) and Kim Deal cheerfully announced: “We are The Breeders and we’re going to play Last Splash from beginning to end.” And, well, that’s exactly what they did! Kim’s vocals were initially lost amidst the muddy sound but the songs were so familiar to everyone that the melodies were practically imagined into audibility (and the beaming, charismatic grin on Kim’s face meant all could be forgiven).

A little swap over of instruments between bassist Josephine Wiggs and drummer Jim Macpherson for post-‘No Aloha’ song ‘Roi’ – coupled with some some dry english wit from Jospehine – helped charm the crowd even further; but things only really felt (and sounded) fully ‘right’ once songs from the Safari E.P. and Pod  were played in the encores. The post-Last Splash album tour norms ‘Shocker in Gloomtown’, ‘Head to Toe’, ‘Happiness is a Warm Gun’ and ‘Safari’ were rolled out in a lo-fi, messy glee and the Vicar St. crowd were treated to a ‘first-time-in-a-long-time’ performance of ‘Opened’ from Pod. ‘Oh’, ‘Limehouse’, ‘Iris’ and, last but not least, the superb ‘Don’t Call Home’ brought the night to a fitting 11pm closure.

Truthfully, the performance never quite managed to explode but what was clear was that it felt like a band of real friends performing as a unit and not just a case of the Deal sisters performing with additional members. The rough and ready songs from their debut album Pod certainly suited the general musical looseness of the evening more than the Last Splash songs but, all in all, an enjoyable and nostalgic night was successfully had by all (and with the news breaking earlier in the day that Kim had officially left the recently reformed Pixies, the future looks very Breeders-bright indeed!)

MATTHEW BARKS

Setlist:

New Year

Cannonball

Invisible Man

No Aloha

Roi

Do You Love Me Now?

Flipside

I Just Wanna Get Along

Mad Lucas

Divine Hammer

S.O.S.

Hag

Saints

Drivin’ on 9

Roi (Reprise)

Encore:

Shocker in Gloomtown

Head To Toe

Happiness is a Warm Gun

Safari

Opened

Oh!

Lime House

Encore 2:

Iris

Don’t Call Home