My 12 Favorite Concerts - #2 Pixies

#2
Pixies
Oct. 15, 1989, The Roxy Theatre (Atlanta)

1989 was an exceptional year for music. Oranges & Lemons from XTC, Automatic from Jesus & Mary Chain, Flip-Flop from Guadalcanal Diary, Fun & Games from The Connells, Key Lime Pie from Camper Van Beethoven and self-titled debuts from The Stone Roses, The Ocean Blue, The Innocence Mission and The Indigo Girls. But probably topping them all on my list was the first Pixies album I ever picked up, Doolittle. The band also put on my favorite show that year, which would end up being my favorite show of the first 35 years of my life. I was right up front in a very robust mosh pit, complete with a couple of skin heads. It was my first time crowd-surfing. And the music was amazing. The band would turn on a dime from quiet beautiful melodies to balls-to-the-wall rock, and Black Francis was screaming his heart out to tunes off Surfer Rosa and Doolittle. I saw the reunion show at the much larger Fox Theater in 2005 and it reminded me just how great this band was live.