If you didn’t catch the Pixies at the 2007 V Festival you probably heard about it from someone who did. I’m still finding new and exciting (for me) ways to slip my own attendance into conversation. “Great day for flying kites,” someone will say. “Kites!” I’ll respond. “If you’d seen Francis Black steer the Pixies through a pin-sharp perfect set of demented grunge punk pop at the inaugural V Festival you wouldn’t be wasting your life with kites.” Pixies Obsessive Disorder (POD) can afflict anyone with working ears but it tends to largely be a Gen X phenom. To bring you up to speed, the Pixies are the nirvana we were having before Nirvana, the forbearers of grunge and the inventors of the soft loud dynamic. They were far too Indy to have had any hits but even casual fans can recite the lyrics and their own interpretations of songs like Monkey Gone To Heaven, Debaser and Where is My Mind? The awesome news is that the Pixies will return to our shores in March next year for a special 20 year anniversary celebration of their seminal 1989 album Doolittle. Bring your kite (if you must) I’ll see you there. See: fasterlouder.com.au for tour dates.