RIYL: Nirvana, The Replacements, Jesus & Mary Chain

Here’s a nifty Blu-ray two-fer for the indie rock purist in your life. “Acoustic” and “Electric” were released individually in 2006, but are smartly paired together here, along with some footage of one of the Pixies’ first gigs at the legendary TT the Bear’s.

The acoustic show, recorded in 2005 at the Newport Folk Festival, was certainly a unique affair for both the festival and the band; the band had never done a full acoustic show before, and the festival organizers never had an artist that could claim to have influenced Nirvana, but there they were, plugging through a well-balanced set of alt rock hits (“Monkey Gone to Heaven,” “Here Comes Your Man”) and large chunks of their debut album Surfer Rosa and their 1989 breakthrough Doolittle. It’s cute, though forcing guitarist Joey Santiago to play an entire set without an electric guitar is a crime against nature, something that the “Electric” set rectifies. Recorded at the tiny Paradise rock club in Boston only a few days after the Newport gig (Frank Black and Kim Deal are even wearing the same shirts), “Electric” is the Pixies as they are meant to be heard. Black even goes off the set list at the beginning and begs drummer David Lovering to do “La La Love You” because his mom’s in the audience. The band scarcely lets up from there, and Santiago gets his ya-ya’s out on a blistering version of “Vamos” where he plays his effects pedals like a synthesizer.

There isn’t much in the way of on-stage banter – after the first couple songs, they just tend to play and play – and for some reason they had no use for “Dig for Fire,” one of their best-known songs – but they get credit for mixing up the set lists and covering 37 different songs between the two shows. And with the holidays fast approaching, this is the kind of thing that someone is probably reluctant to buy, but would love to get. (Eagle Vision 2010)

The Pixies MySpace page
Click to buy Acoustic and Electric from Amazon