The Breeders “All Nerve” 2018. 4AD Records, limited edition orange vinyl. We saw The Breeders last night at The Rave in Milwaukee (not my favorite venue, to say the least, but I won the tickets – thanks WMSE! – and the sound didn’t suck!!). Kim and Kelley Deal, along with badass bassist Josephine Wiggs and drummer Jim McPherson played a great mix of old songs and tracks from their latest release, All Nerve.

They opened with the lead track from their 1993 masterpiece Last Splash “New Year” before playing the amazing single from All Nerve “Wait In the Car,” a song which proves that the Deal sisters are still masters of classic one-liners: Kim Deal spitting “Wait in the car. I’ve got business”
mirrors other great lyrical moments like “Saw it on the wall: Motherhood means mental freeze” from “No Aloha” and “I’ll be your whatever you want, The bong in this reggae song” from “Cannonball” – they played both of these last night along with “Divine Hammer” and “Drivin’ on 9″ from Last Splash. “Drivin’ on 9″ was particularly delightful; in whatever town they played last they found a violin player to play that part of the song but couldn’t secure one in Milwaukee so Kelley sang the part, beautifully. Other highlights of the show from All Nerve were “Walking With a Killer” and the loud-quiet-loud Pixies/Breeders tension of “Nervous Mary” – though really it’s more quiet…… LOUD on that song.

It was a joy to watch The Breeders perform: Kim was all smiles during the entire show (I’ve seen her in the past a bit scowly when playing with The Pixies) and she asked the audience a couple of times how we were doing and seemed genuinely concerned we were having a good time. While there were often long pauses between songs for instrument changes, tunings, cheat-screen adjustments (I think the panel by Kim’s feet had a set list and lyric sheet display), this just added to their charm. What really surprised me was the low budget DIY vibe of their setup: I only saw one roadie do pre-show instrument checks and he then also doubled as a third guitar for one song. Their merch guy also joined them on stage at one point to play keyboards. I’ll admit I haven’t been following The Breeders latest tour news carefully but my guess is that they aren’t touring with an opener – for the show last night a Milwaukee band, Dorth Nakota, opened (my verdict on these guys – meh. I was bored, they had little stage presence beyond slurping cans of Pabst, and the lead guy was an ass when he came into the audience near us during The Breeders’
set) – another way to keep tour costs lean and mean and instead focus on playing the music.

Runout groove side A: a cute cat face doodle,
Runout groove Side B: Kim Kelley Josephine Jim