LIVE REVIEW Water Rats Theatre Wed 24th April 2002  Text by Sarah Thirtle Photos By Marcus O'Higgins

Below is the review of the Water Rats gig. Click here to read an interview with the band. The Breeders - review Wedged in between their All Tomorrows Parties gigs, The Breeders gig at the 200 capacity Water Rats in Kings Cross had all the credentials of a storming night. As anyone who's been into alt/indie music (or whatever you want to call it) since the late eighties/early nineties will tell you, The Breeders are very important indeed. Here's a quick reminder. Britain's 4AD record label formed, and then signed Throwing Muses (Tanya Donelly, Kristin Hersh) and The Pixies (Frank Black, Kim Deal). Over the next few years, no sixth form common room was complete without copies of The Pixies Doolittle or Trompe Le Monde hanging around. Later Tanya Donnelly and Kim Deal formed The Breeders. Tanya then went on to form Belly. Meanwhile, Kim, her twin sister Kelley and the rest of The Breeders wrote and released the phenomenal and acclaimed Last Splash in 1993. Another album, Pod, and another band from Kim, The Amps, followed. Now fast forward to 2002. The Breeders are back with a new album Title TK. They are back with a European tour. But are they still cutting the proverbial mustard? They open tonight with No Aloha. The crowd, rammed full of die-hard Breeders fans, go radio rental. These are fans that have even had tattoos declaring their adoration of Kim and the band. So the band doesn't have to win anyone over tonight. Instead they exude an affectionate familiarity with the audience. They joke, they giggle, they wrangle about who starts the next song, they take requests for Richard to play on guitar. But, they do say that familiarity breeds (no pun intended) contempt. In this case it's not contempt, but an easiness, a lack of urgency. Even though Cannonball, a favourite of retro indie club nights, when played tonight is frantic and vital, and creates a massive buzz in the doe eyed crowd, The Breeders know this, and rely on it. Take it for granted? Maybe, maybe not. There is still new material to showcase. Kim describes a new song as a "pretty one". While the bass and drums roll along with the usual Breeders pace and grind, lyrically and melodically Kim has again found her vitriolic voice, even though at times it's on the point of breaking. The recent single Huffer, introduced tonight as a "new one", exudes sheer simplicity with a passion and forthrightness. Yes, The Breeders know what they're doing, and they know they do it well. They push and pull at conventions. They are lyrically and musically intelligent. And they still blow you away. Old school they may be, but never old hat. The Breeders - interview After The Breeders played their blistering gig at The Water Rats I managed to grab a quick chat with the band, sat on a stone step on the very glamorous (e-hem!) Grays Inn Road. So how was the gig for them? "Oh, it was cool, you know. The guys in the crowd were so nice." Kelley is beaming as she speaks. "At one point my bottle of water fell over, these really sweet girls in the front row picked it up!" This, I have to say, is not what I expected from Kelley Deal. From reading past interviews with the band, and more importantly with Kim, it was made clear that Kelley has had one or two run-ins with drugs, and heavy ones at that. During this time she was described as being unreliable, flakey and asleep all the time. So the happy, energetic, grateful and eager to help Kelley was a welcome surprise. I asked how she thought the All Tomorrow's Parties gig went the weekend before. "Wow, that was so much fun. I'm still getting over it". This is true. When I arrived at the venue that afternoon she was fast asleep on a sofa in the bar. Perhaps Kelley had just become out of practice with the whole gigging thing. The Breeders have been pretty quiet since their last album Pod. I wondered what it was like to get back on the bandwagon again. Kelley pondered a moment then, "Well, we've still been doing stuff. Kim had The Amps so she's been busy. Its like we've all done stuff," at this point various hand movements and gesticulations come into play, "and been going along like this, then just come back together like this." Ah, I see! Mando (bass) adds, "I started playing with The Breeders about November 2000. A few months later we were doing secret gigs in Los Angeles". All moved along pretty quickly then? "Yeah, it just came together." Some of the songs that were played tonight were from the new album, Title TK, released through 4AD. I wondered what themes and ideas ran through it. Mando explains, "Kim had written most of it already. We just came along and played what she had written. We didn't really write while we were doing it." "What's that?" Kelley interjects. "I was just saying, " Mando continues, "that the songs for the album were pretty much finished when we recorded it. Mind you, we did come up with a couple." "Yeah, Sinister Foxx." From this I gather that any themes and ideas behind the songs are mostly Kim's, and the band comes together to learn and play the finished songs. I ask Kim directly what was going through her mind when recording the album. "Well, I wanted the drums here, the bass here, the guitars here, that kind of thing." I think she may not be in the mood to talk to a journalist, as this is not the kind of answer I was hoping for. The word pedantic springs to mind. Well, I suppose it is her prerogative to be as informative as she wants, or not, as the case may be. She is also quite pre-occupied by the presence of old Pixies band mate David Lovering and his card tricks! But this very frame of mind being displayed by Kim - the "spun out" attitude, the angst, the reticence - is exactly what the album connotes. The measured chord progressions seem often on the point of hurtling into the erratic, especially when combined with the syncopated drumming style of Jose. Lyrically Kim lays herself bare - "Misery's fun I'm kissing everyone, I gotta hold my tongue" (London Song). The current single Huffer exemplifies a paradox of wanting to move, to avoid, yet experiencing no change or an inability to stop the inevitable, with the line, "Toil toil toil til I get sick, I try to find reverse but I'm not that quick." Kim seems to be talking about the apparently inescapable, cyclical nature of things. An example of this may be angst fueling the music, yet the music (or more likely what is wrapped up in it, i.e. the journalists!) fueling the angst? All too soon Kim and Kelley are being ushered away by friends to another late night drinking establishment. Kim wonders whether she should go on, or perhaps just go back to the hotel. I think my time is up. I am left a little confused by our brief conversation. I would have liked to have found out more, particularly from Kim. I guess that she is one of those people that is reticent with journalists, particularly those she doesn't know. Hopefully we can meet again, and I'll find out a little more about one of the most prolific and groundbreaking women in indie-rock. TOP