Scott Thill
Culture

Black Francis Can't Tell Rock Chickens From Eggs

As the lead shrieker for the Pixies or the solo troubadour named Frank Black, Black Francis has created some of the most memorable rock songcraft of the last three decades. Now he’s planning to perform it in venues the size of your garage. That is, months before taking the Pixies on the road, at last, […]

Black Francis
As the lead shrieker for the Pixies or the solo troubadour named Frank Black, Black Francis has created some of the most memorable rock songcraft of the last three decades. Now he's planning to perform it in venues the size of your garage. That is, months before taking the Pixies on the road, at last, in America.

On August 1, Francis -- whose real name is Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV, thank you very much -- continues a short, stripped-down, solo tour with Built to Spill's ax wizard Doug Martsch in Idaho. He'll hit love shacks like Los Angeles' The Mint and San Francisco's Hotel Utah, which on a good day can probably house a hundred souls and not much else.

The intimate venues give way on August 14, at Big Sur's Henry Miller Library no less, after which Black Francis will eventually lead the Pixies on an international tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of Doolittle. The tour begins abroad in earnest this October, before adjourning to the Pixies' native U.S. in November.

Francis announced his intimate tour with a press release shot through with his patented wisecrackery. Read it and weep --with alt-laughter.

My name is Black Francis (sometimes known as Frank Black). Listed below are the main releases I have been associated with to date. While performing solo or with a band I will play selections from most of these releases. Of course, some releases are better known than others, and in true show biz fashion I will usually perform several selections from my "A" list, but I will not perform medleys. And I generally do not perform so called encores, because I have always found this show biz mechanism (now it is a mechanism) to be overused and as a result lacking in the drama that perhaps occurred in the encores of yesteryear; plus, shouldn't an encore be a repeat performance of some selection that has already taken place earlier in the concert? I think some people would be confused if I repeated a song for an encore.

For some artists the live performance is the chicken before the egg of writing or recording of repertoire. For other artists the writing or recording of repertoire is the chicken before the egg of live performance. For other artists still there is the feeling that the live performance or the writing or recording of repertoire is that EGG which comes first. I am one of those artists who cannot remember which came first: the chicken or the egg? I can remember back as far as age 8 performing with the Boston Folk Song Society. It was a Woody Guthrie song.

why oh why oh why oh why?
why oh why oh why?
because because because because because because because

But what came before that? I cannot remember. I have always been a singer, a writer, and a musician, not as a prodigy or as in a trade handed to me by my parents, but because of an inner voice or maybe a command from beyond reality as it is usually defined. Some have called we rock and roll performers who never retire troubadours. I enjoy this misnomer immensely. While there are many differences between me and my distant predecessors in L'Occitane I do believe there is a lineage that connects us of the last 70 years with those romantic singers of the High Middle Ages.

The full list of Black Francis solo dates are as follows, so far:

8/1 - Boise, ID, Neurolux (w/Doug Martsch)
8/2 - Seattle, WA, Triple Door
8/4 - Portland, OR, Aladdin
8/7-8 - San Francisco, CA, Hotel Utah
8/9 - San Luis Obispo, CA, Downtown Brew
8/11-12 - Los Angeles, CA, The Mint
8/13 Visalia, CA, Cellar Door
8/14 Big Sur, CA Henry Miller Library

The Pixies U.S. dates are as follows, so far:

11/04 - Los Angeles, CA The Palladium (on sale TBA)
11/08 - Oakland, CA Fox Theater (on sale August 16)
11/09 - Oakland, CA Fox Theater (on sale August 16)
11/12 - Seattle, WA Paramount Theatre (on sale August 1)
11/13 - Seattle, WA Paramount Theatre (on sale August 1)
11/14 - Eugene, OR Hult Center (on sale August 14)
11/16 - Denver, CO The Fillmore (on sale September 12)
11/20 - Chicago, IL Aragon Ballroom (on sale September 12)
11/21 - Chicago, IL Aragon Ballroom (on sale September 12)
11/23 - New York, NY Hammerstein Ballroom (on sale August 14)
11/24 - New York, NY Hammerstein Ballroom (on sale August 14)
11/25 - New York, NY Hammerstein Ballroom (on sale August 14)
11/27 - Boston, MA Wang Center (on sale September 12)
11/30 - Washington, DC Constitution Hall (on sale September 11)

Where is my mind? Oh yeah, wait out there, somewhere rocking.

Image courtesy of Xenus/Wikipedia

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