The Pixies rocked the Main Stage during day one of the Coachella Music and Arts Festival in Indio, CA. This was the culmination of The Pixies 13-city North American “warm up” reunion dates, one of the most anticipated tours this year since the group disbanded in 1993. Tickets were hard to come by for the bulk of this tour, all of the shows sold out in only minutes. Coachella was the perfect venue to allow 50,000 Pixies fans to get their fix.

The foursome looked genuinely happy to be back playing their songs together again, and didn’t have to dig for fire when they got on stage. Opening the show with “Bone Machine” from their 1998 Surfer Rosa album, you couldn’t tell that the band hadn’t toured since 1992 with U2’s “ZOO TV” tour. Frank Black is someone whose voice doesn’t seem to age. Throughout the festival grounds Frank’s voice soared like an angel on “Velouria.” Other crowd favorites included “Monkey Gone to Heaven” and “Debaser.”

Experiencing The Pixies performance was such a rush, you can really feel how solid they are playing, rocking out…hard. The vocal harmonies on “Here Comes Your Man” and all songs were tight and right on. Kim Deal took the lead singing “Gigantic” and sounded more polished than on the original recording. Deal is definitely an icon to all chick rockers.

International Summer 2004 tour dates have been announced as well as North American Fall 2004 tour dates. Many dates in September through November of the North American tour have sold out, so you should get your tickets now.

Fans will be eager to hear that The Pixies announced they will be performing at Lollapalooza. In early May, 4AD/The Beggars Group released Pixies Live. This DVD includes eight videos, a live concert filmed in 1988, the Pixies documentary entitled Gouge and behind the scenes footage. Fans should also run out and get the ‘best of’ album, Wave of Mutilation – Best of Pixies, replacing the 1997 out of print ‘best of’ album Death to The Pixies.

While members have their side projects, the latest of note is the Joey Santiago and Linda Mallari duo called The Martinis. The Martinis new album is called Smitten and is in stores now. Side projects may be habit for these band mates, one thing is for sure The Pixies are “Gigantic”, “All Over the World” of “Rock Music.” The Pixies performance at Coachella put them on my list of favorite concerts to attend, I recommend you see them this year and you will be “Blown Away.”

If you weren’t able to catch The Pixies on one of their 13 “warm up” reunion dates, you may still be able to hear the shows. DiscLive http://www.disclive.com made 1,000 CDs of every show (2,000 of the Coachella show) which are available for purchase on their website.