loud QUIET loud—a film about The Pixies DVD Review

DVD review by Josh Gross, KPSU Editorial Team

The Pixies formed in Boston in 1986, releasing five albums before disbanding in 1993. Although the band was moderately successful, signed to a major label, and well reviewed, they never really reaped the benefits of their own legacy. Like many great artists, they remained unrecognized until after their own death. However, within a few short years they were renowned in every garage and basement across the country, as well as from the top of the pops. Kurt Cobain told Rolling Stone that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was nothing more than his attempt to rip off The Pixies.

After virtually no communication for ten plus years, The Pixies reunited in 2004, and embarked on a year-long series of sold-out tours, letting filmmakers Steven Cantor and Matthew Galkin come along for the ride to create loud QUIET loud
.
The Pixies were great. loud QUIET loud however, is not. Reunion tours are always a touchy business, not only because of the highly emotional tone of the events, but because older wiser versions of the band are not what attracted people to them in the first place. Rock is a medium best suited to short frenetic bursts of passion that can't be recaptured at a later date. When a band burns out instead of fading away, it's often best not to go hunting for matches.

loud QUIET loud rams this point home by showing us an awkward overweight Black Francis discussing his purchase of a minivan, bassist Kim Deal living at home to take care of her mother, guitarist Joey Santiago accompanying his wife to an ultrasound, and drummer Dave Lovering's new hobbies of combing the beach with a metal detector and performing magic. None of the band seems aware of his impact on their fans or relevance to music in general, and in many ways seem rather confused and skeptical that anyone will notice that they are touring. Black Francis disinterestedly says, "I guess things are going to go pretty good," in response to learning that tickets for the entire tour sold out in less than five minutes.

The band doesn't talk much amongst each other, and there is little in the way of dramatic tension, unless you count Black Francis's attempts to coax his step-son into touching a starfish at an aquarium. However, there is a lot of beautifully shot concert footage from a year's worth of touring included in the film. But even that footage shows The Pixies as balding middle-aged white people, who are for the most part pretty dull, and just happen to have somehow found themselves in one of the most important rock bands of the last twenty years. The real emotional high points in the film come from the fans, people who line up hours ahead of time for the shows, giddiliy fall over after receiving autographs, cry in the front rows, and explain the origins of their love for The Pixies to the band afterwards.

And even with all that, the band still doesn't seem to get it.

The emotional tension of a reunion tour, especially from a band so disconnected that they learned they were disbanding from a BBC interview with their singer instead of firsthand, is a situation primed for documentary status. And yet, despite that, loud QUIET loud still managed to drop the ball and give us a tame, bland look at what have become tame, bland people.

Rock idols should remain immortal, frozen at the height of their career, in those rare moments of frenetic passion that help inspire the rest of us to go on day-to-day. No matter how big a Pixies fan you think you are, watching this film may rip that away from you by bringing their status down to being only human.