The Breeders with Colour Revolt
May 9, 2008
The Bottleneck
By ANDY VIHSTADT
It’s been 15 years since the Breeders’ biggest hit. Now championed as alt-rock veterans, Kim and Kelley Deal deserve a toast for never going on a “Cannonball” run. Aside from the aforementioned, they’ve never strived for radio rotation, which means anything goes when it comes to the setlist.
Along with Mountain Battles, there was a good balance of Pod and Last Splash thrown into Friday night’s 70-minute show (although, Title TK went almost completely ignored) as well as a couple from the Kim’s short-lived side project, the Amps. The older material has held up incredibly well over the years and despite the young crowd, songs like “Fortunately Gone,” “Iris,” and their version of the Beatles’ “Happiness is a Warm Gun” were met with the same applause as newer ones, and even “Cannonball” for that matter, which was placed midway through the set.
Part of what makes their sound so timeless is their “All Wave” recording process. According to the band’s site, “In short, to record All Wave one must use no computers, no digital recording, no auto-tuning, or any other mainstays of contemporary production.” What you see is what you get, both in the studio and on stage. When combined, Kim and Kelley’s voices have a sinister quality, sort of like those creepy Grady twins from the Shining, and it proved to be just as haunting in person on “We’re Gonna Rise.”
The first time I saw them live was in an arena opening for Nirvana, but the Dayton, Ohio twins seem better suited for darker, more intimate venues like the Bottleneck. Kim and Kelley have never been much for showmanship and certainly seemed more comfortable this time around, joking around with the audience and the rest of the band while sporting permagrins throughout the evening.
Kim tripped up a bit on the lyrics to “Iris,” but flawlessly plowed through the foreign language “German Studies” afterwards. They wrapped up the all-too-short set with “Saints,” and doing what they do best, they left us wanting more. Now in their mid-forties, let’s hope the Deals don’t retire to Florida before giving us at least one more album.
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