Pixies, Modest Mouse, Cat Power

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Liam Maxwell

The band Pixies in shadows.

Pixies (from left): David Lovering, Black Francis, Joey Santiago, Emma Richardson.

If seeing Pixies (when did they drop the “the,” exactly?) at Breese Stevens Field was not on your bingo card for, like — ever — we feel you. Yet here they are. Original members Black Francis, Joey Santiago and David Lovering are still with the band; Emma Richardson steps in for Kim Deal to provide the beautiful disparities for those hallmark songs where the male and female lead vocals don’t seem to have much to do with each other. Forerunners of grunge and the loud-soft-loud mix that Nirvana would later popularize, Pixies still attack their songbook with both melody and sheer volume. Co-headliners Modest Mouse hail from the early 1990s Pacific Northwest yet can sound more like late ‘80s British bands like Depeche Mode. And soulful singer songwriter Cat Power is the opening act? We can’t think of a reason not to go to this show.

Gates: 4:30 PM | Show: 5:30 PM

media release: Rock titans Pixies and Modest Mouse announced their 2024 co-headline tour across North America with special guest Cat Power. Produced by Live Nation, the 23-date run includes a stop at Breese Stevens Field in Madison, on Saturday, June 22, 2024.

The 2024 tour follows the highly successful sold-out 2023 run featuring all three acts, which concluded in San Diego this past September. The 2023 tour included an epic Hollywood Bowl performance in Los Angeles and multiple nights at Pier 17 in New York, along with stops in Napa, Bridgeport, Vail, Seattle and more. 

Pixies have been acclaimed as the most influential, pioneering band of the late '80s alt/rock movement, having served as a major influence for artists like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Radiohead, the Strokes, Weezer, and many more. And today, a whole new generation of music fans has been discovering and embracing the band’s “loudquietloud” signature sound. Quirky, catchy melodies have always been Pixies’ calling card; seven genre-defining studio albums, including the Gold-certified Surfer Rosa, and the iconic Platinum Doolittle, considered one of the all-time, quintessential alt/rock albums. Sell-out crowds all over the globe, Pixies’ live shows are unadulterated magic, simultaneously electrifying and lo-fi. Seventy-five minutes of the band playing anything they want, in whatever order they want, the classics and the new gems. And no two Pixies shows are ever the same.

Having recently completed a sold out 25th anniversary tour for their breakthrough album, 1997's The Lonesome Crowded West and played a summer ’23 run with Pixies and Cat Power, Modest Mouse continues to prove themselves to be one of the most consistent live acts today. Modest Mouse released their highly anticipated album, The Golden Casket, on June 25, 2021, via Epic Records. The Golden Casket heralds another new chapter in the GRAMMY® Award-nominated multi platinum band’s unpredictable evolution. Produced with Dave Sardy and Jacknife Lee in Los Angeles and in Modest Mouse’s studio in Portland, the album hovers in the liminal space between raw punk power and experimental studio science, frontman Isaac Brock explores themes ranging from the degradation of our psychic landscapes and invisible technology, to fatherhood. The twelve tracks behave like amorphous organisms, undergoing dramatic mutations and mood swings that speak to the chronic tug-of-war between hope and despair that plays out in Brock’s head. 

With a catalogue of songwriting that’s unparalleled in the worlds of indie rock and American music at large—spanning several decades and ten studio albums—Chan Marshall’s work as Cat Power has defied genre and convention, her legacy rippling through the work of a wide range of contemporary musical luminaries ranging from Lana Del Rey, Clairo, and Soccer Mommy to Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Angel Olsen. There’s a rawness and immediacy to Marshall’s music that has stood the test of time, with every new musical missive from her as essential as what’s come before it.