Taya Llewellyn (synthesizephoto)
May 30, 2025| Harry Shiels |LIVE REVIEW
Live Review: Pixies & Big Special | O2 Academy Birmingham | 20/05/25
Alternative rock legends Pixies are back for another sold out run around the UK in support of their newest album The Night The Zombies Came, with local genre bending punk upstarts Big Special opening the show.
Big Special
Netting a huge spot opening for Pixies across their while UK run, local Brummie genre fusions two piece Big Special have the honour of playing to a damn near packed out crowd as they take to the stage. “It’s good to be home, give us a thumbs up, you’re never too cool for a thumbs up”. Having released their debut album POSTINDUSTRIAL HOMETOWN BLUES last year, Big Special pull together a concise thirty-minute showcase of their fusion of seething post punk, beat poetry and hip hop influences. Big Special ooze a lot of character live, quickly gaining the support of those in attendance as they tear into visceral screamer ‘SHITHOUSE’ early in the set.
They have a bit of an odd set up as a live unit, with drums and vocals performed live, while programmed backing tracks play from a sample pad by the kit. Plenty of 2012 peak air horn samples get thrown around, giving folks a good laugh between the careening energies of the band’s moody material. All things considered, they sound great, winning over scores of new appreciators in their home city with their burgeoning energy and clear appreciation for tonight’s headliners. Definitely worth catching across their various festival appearances this summer; however, it may make for a far more interesting experience if they experimented with a full live band in the future.
Photo Credit: Taya Llewellyn (synthesizephoto)
Big Special
Pixies
How much is left to say about alt-rock legends Pixies? Known for their flawless classic album run and transforming the face of alternative music, the Boston four piece have been long-established as royalty influencing several generations of alternative musicians and still continuing to produce new albums long into their reunion run. After visiting the UK last year for a run of classic album sets and festival performances, 2025 sees the band running across the isles in support of their 2024 album The Night The Zombies Came. Tonight’s show in Birmingham is not listed as sold out, but you could’ve fooled anyone in the room, as the venue floor is packed near capacity. At this point they’re drawing a multi-generational crowd, fans from their original run in the 80s standing alongside young teens here for their first big rock show.
The lights dim, and the band take to the stage for an instrumental cover of ‘Cecilia Ann’ by The Surftones before veering straight into a double helping of classic cuts ‘Monkey Gone To Heaven’ and ‘Wave of Mutilation’. In classic Pixies fashion, there is little time for anything but music, they waste no time between songs chatting with the crowd, only changing instruments and packing in a whopping twenty-eight songs into their ninety-minute set. The audience is here for a great time, passionate in their displays of love for Pixies greatest hits, alongside warm receptions for their new album material, bouncing and howling along to their favourite landscape shifting anthems.
Having joined the band last year and being a part of the albums’ production, bassist and backing vocalist Emma Richardson (of Band Of Skulls) fits perfectly into the mix, following Paz Lenchantin in expertly establishing their own energy when replicating Kim Deal’s iconic bass lines and vocals. On that note, Pixies are one of the best sounding live bands to ever grace the O2 academy. Not only the clarity of the instrumentals and the vocals, but the mix balancing as well is phenomenal, from their classic cuts to new singles, everything sounds massive as well as undoubtedly crisp and clean. They continue to sound better and better with age, even if vocalist Black Francis’ screamed vocals only get more unhinged as the years go by. The stage production is kept low-key and simple as to not take away from the music itself, subtle lighting and a large neon Pixies logo hanging at the back of the stage.
The set’s flow is excellent, made up for the most part with new album material; title track ‘Jane (The Night The Zombies Came)’ and big singles ‘Chicken’ as well as ‘Motoroller’ sitting alongside deeper album cuts like ‘The Vegas Suite’, ‘Kings of the Prairie’ and ‘Mercy Me’. Of course that only covers seven of the twenty-eight tracks played tonight, the rest made up of fan favourite classics, as well a few covers and deeper cuts. A few tracks from other reunion-era albums fit in nicely; the likes of Indie Cindy’s ‘Snakes’ and Beneath The Eyrie’s ‘Death Horizon’ slipping in next to ‘Gouge Away‘ and ‘Here Comes Your Man’, received with just as much love from the diehards in the room. There is a loving tribute to the late great auteur director David Lynch thrown in with the band covering the eerie ‘In Heaven (Lady In The Radiator Song)’ from the classic cult film Eraserhead, just before launching into seminal hit ‘Where is My Mind?’ with the crowd providing the iconic synth-choir melody.
Everything comes to a head as the set barrels towards its inevitable finale; ‘Bone Machine’ and ‘Debaser’ send an already jubilant audience towards frenzy, almost being able to feel the room shake with the crowd’s bounce. Doolittle anthem ‘Tame’ gives a minute to breathe before all the lights in the building come on, dazzling the crowd for one last tune in the form of ‘Into The White’. To answer the question posed at the start of the review, there is clearly still plenty left to say about one of the most important bands of the modern music era. Still crafting iconic shows with fantastic new material that fits alongside their legendary classics with ease, Pixies are an undeniable force of nature that continues to surge as the years go on.
Photo Credit: Taya Llewellyn (synthesizephoto)
