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Live Review: The Breeders, Screamfeeder

Matt MacMaster

Last Splash may or may not have deserved this sort of reverential treatment, but Deal and co delivered a rock-solid argument on its behalf, and it’s still a bloody good listen – especially at the Enmore turned up to 11.

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Last Splash is the latest “classic” album to get the full concert treatment, with The Breeders playing to a packed house on Monday night. It's an uneven album if we're being honest, but a great example of what was happening all over the place in the early '90s: pop culture dragged a weird and heavy underground music scene into the harsh limelight, and bands that were formerly destined to become the new torch bearers for true punk instead became mega-commodities and littered the bedroom walls of gum-chewing teenagers. It was a decade of harsh sounds being panel-beaten into something resembling pop, with unique results.

Warming up the show was old triple j warhorses Screamfeeder, playing a decent set of material that never really set things on fire. Kellie Lloyd provided the best song in the set.

The Breeders took the stage TO no fanfare (Kim Deal's big smile beaming out), and they opened with a chunky version of Guided By Voices' Shocker In Gloomtown. From there it was a faithful, no frills play-through of Last Splash in all its strange, angular, sometimes epic glory. New Year was big and splashy, and No Aloha still sounded like a malfunction – a malcontent middle child in between the rest. The guitars sounded fuel-injected though, and it was an infinitely better version than the recorded one.

The rubbery bassline of Cannonball has lost none of its appeal, and for three minutes all the reverence and nostalgia coalesced. From there it was easy street. The crowd was vocal (Sydney crowds always are!), and the band were too. Divine Hammer was a sunny, lucid waypoint amid the oddly tuned guitars and playful extremes. It wasn't a perfect show; Kim's vocals were mixed, Kelley Deal's guitars were patchy and the less said about Josephine Wiggs' turn on sticks the better.

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Wrapping up the set with Roi was a nice highlight, but then Kim pulled a doozy with the inevitable encore – a full rendition of their debut Pod. It's a heavier and slower listen, but the set felt satisfying, not bloated. Beatles cover Happiness Is A Warm Gun sounded great.

Last Splash may or may not have deserved this sort of reverential treatment, but Deal and co delivered a rock-solid argument on its behalf, and it's still a bloody good listen – especially at the Enmore turned up to 11.