90’s alternative rock darlings The Breeders rocked the Mission Ballroom last Wednesday, completing their three-stop tour performing their first two albums in their entirety, “Pod” and “Last Splash”. The earliest incarnation of the band formed in 1989, but the band achieved mainstream success in 1993 with the release of “Last Splash” and its single “Cannonball”. The current Breeders lineup is Kim Deal (formerly of The Pixies), her twin sister Kelley Deal, Josephine Wiggs (formerly of The Perfect Disaster), and Jim Macpherson.
Opening for The Breeders was Man On Man, an indie pop band from New York City consisting of boyfriends Roddy Bottum (of Faith No More, Imperial Teen) and Joey Holman. With a backtrack of programmed drums and punchy synth, they performed guitar solos and keyboard licks and sang about love, sex, politics, and the horrors of dating as a gay man. They were received well by the audience and switched between playful antagonism and heartfelt praise when discussing the audience, the tour and The Breeders during their set.
The Breeders played two sets, one for each album, and played them in album order. “Pod” was first, and they launched into its opening track “Glorious” with little fanfare or discussion. “Pod” was released in 1990, and featured a different lineup than the one on stage. Macpherson played the role of Britt Walford (formerly of Slint) on drums and Kelley Deal performed Tanya Donnely’s (formerly of Throwing Muses, Belly) roles on lead guitar and backing vocals. Their live sound was markedly more aggressive and distorted than the recorded album but otherwise matched the sound and tempo. Crowd work was light on the front half, with band introductions, sentimental musings, and joking about how their home state of Ohio was now the butt of Gen-Z lingo.
They ended with “Metal Man”, the only track that Joesphine takes lead vocals on, with a photo of Steve Albini wearing a Breeder’s tee behind them. Steve Albini passed away in May and was a prominent figure in the 80s and 90s independent rock scene, engineering “Pod” among many other influential albums of the time.
The Breeders took a short intermission, changing equipment and instruments, before launching into the opening track of “Last Splash”, “New Year”. “Last Splash” was released in 1993, and was recorded with all of the musicians on stage. As such, they had lots to share about things they were doing to replicate sounds on the album. “S.O.S.” features a sewing machine in a percussive role, which they replicated with a sewing machine of the same model. (The original sewing machine sits in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.) Kelley Deal had three microphones, to mimic the vocal distortion on tracks such as “Cannonball” and the vibrato on “Mad Lucas”. The session violinist was pitched down to mimic cello and double bass tones, and Roddy Bottum came out to perform keys to replicate the Moog synthesizer on Flipside. Their tone matched that of the album well, with only mild volume control hiccups with Kim Deal’s guitar.
The show ended with enthusiastic applause, an encore of “Walking with a Killer” off of their 2018 album “All Nerve”, and more applause. The Breeders walked a near-perfect line of produced quality and audience intimacy, playing well and making the crowd feel appreciated for enjoying the material.