There’s been a windfall of Pixies DVDs in the past year or two, but Acoustic: Live In Newport takes the cake for odd and wonderful resonance. What’s even more fascinating than this concert document of the Pixies at the 2005 Newport Folk Festival is the behind-the-scenes material, where we quickly see that the the reconstituted band not so much eases into the idea of an acoustic set as it gets ready to shoehorn itself in.
It all seems like a day at the office for Frank Black, whose recent proclivities have been almost all salt, twang, and dust (two albums and three discs worth of alt-country with Nashville’s finest backing him). But Joey Santiago, David Lovering and especially Kim Deal seem a little tweaked by the whole experience, and throughout, it doesn’t look like Deal has loosened up much at all (her cigarette-lipped scowl is just a perfect visual). Overall, the unease is a surreal image for a band that knows how to own a crowd, taken almost completely out of its element and handed to the Newport Folk audience.
Instead of radical set-list reinvention for the occasion, the Pixies made an excellent choice in essentially keeping the same song order it used for the reunion tour. Stripped down to their essences, you get great performances of “Wave of Mutilation,” “Gauge Away,” “Cactus,” “Here Comes Your Man,” “Crackity Jones,” and others. The finale of “Where Is My Mind?” is as cathartic as you’ve heard, and the band’s one concession to the festival–a version of the ancient folk blues “Been All Around This World”–is ably rendered.
That the music stays potent throughout keeps the video afloat. Like the audience (sort of), you eventually settle into the idea of the Pixies at Newport (with yachts and tents and a clear day in the background instead of a grungy club) and it is what it is.
A four-minute photo gallery set to “Wave of Mutilation” and “I Bleed” is a good run-through, if nothing remarkable. The 20-minute rehearsal sessions extra certainly is, outstanding though, as you see The Pixies tackle “Debaser” acoustically (it does not appear in the DVD’s concert set), and uncomfortably work out the parts to “Been All Around this World.” Acoustic: Live in Newport shows a bold new side to one of the most influential rock acts of our time.
