Live
< The Breeders @ The Scala
words by Sam Little
“Cannonball!” heckles an anonymous face in The Scala crowd. The short, smiling figure of Kim Deal has yet to even pick up her guitar and yet the requests come. But while we were kept in prolonged agony, you needn’t be. Perhaps predictably, The Breeders give their mainstream hit a swerve tonight. It is a disappointment for sure, but considering the entrance fee was the exact amount that you paid for this issue of L&Q, forgiveness is never far away.
Besides, the real disappointment of the night is the cancellation of TV On The Radio’s headlining slot, tragically pulled due to a death in front man, Tunde Adebimpe’s, family. And so, with fellow 4AD label mates, The Breeders, subbed in at the eleventh hour, The Scala doors are flung open to any passer by, lucky to be in the right place at the right time.
“We only know the obscure stuff, so here goes,” grins Deal, in a pre show warning to anymore ‘Cannonball!’ jeers. It does little to stop those who bought ‘Shine 7’ from giving it a go anyway.
But in the most nonchalant of ways, the promise of ‘only the obscure’ has been kept. Various musicians come and go on tracks such as ‘Oh’ and ‘Tipp City’, asking the question, who is a full time Breeder and who is merely a helping hand? And although most of what we hear tonight fails to match the promise of such an important garage, intimacy wins out. The Breeders playing in what feels like your front room… can’t be bad can it?
Originally appeared in volume 1, issue 8 of Loud & Quiet magazine
