How can you pass up seeing Black Francis at the Detroit Bar? Black Francis was recently at the Detroit Bar in August of 2008 touring behind his latest solo album Svn Fngrs.
Grand Duchy is Black Francis's latest venture along with his wife Violet Clark (Bass/Vocals) that takes a dip back into some '80s nostalgia flavored sounds. Petit Fours is their new album released on Cooking Vinyl that clocks in at a brisk 37 minutes.
How do you go about recreating an '80s sounds? Three microKorg keyboards and an assortment of Steinburger and Hohner headless basses will help you channel your inner Devo. It also doesn't hurt to cover The Cure's "A Strange Day" either.
Opening the evening with the rambling "Come On Over To My House", Black Francis added his trademark vocals as he strummed his Fender Telecaster. Violet would later take over a good majority of the vocals duties for a few songs to which an audience member quipped "Does hubby sing?". Violet chuckled and said, "Yes, he will be singing again in a few songs".
Grand Duchy really started to hit their stride during the ending their set when they played "Fort Wayne" and had two basses rumbling for "Break The Angels". They wound down the evening with "Black Suit", "Volcano!" and "Long Song" without returning for an encore. Black Francis did end "Long Song" with a miniature storm of feedback and in the midst of the noise I detected the riff of "Crazy Train" (Corrected by Albert from Heard Mentality) which would have made Beavis and Butthead proud.
Of course, I would love to see The Pixies tour again but you have to admire Black Francis for still hitting the small clubs when he could potentially be selling out large theaters. The exchange of smiles between him and his wife throughout the evening was a good sign that he is focused on Grand Duchy.
1 comment:
"In the midst of the noise I detected the riff of "Iron Man" which would have made Beavis and Butthead proud."
I thought it was Crazy Train...
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