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Black Francis
Academy 2, Manchester.
February 12th 2008.
This wasn't what you would call a set of crowd pleasers, Black Francis (the artist formally known as Frank Black) treated tonights attendees to his Opera, his word not mine, 'Bluefinger' an album based around the work, times, music and drug abuse of Dutch renaissance man Herman Brood. Hightlights included 'You can't break a heart and have it', 'Tight Black Rubber' & 'She took all the money', the latter a real Frank/Francis classic. All played by a tight Black led 3 piece including Dan Schmid on Bass and Jason Carter on drums. The uptemo numbers faired better than the slower ballads with exception of planned set closer 'Lolita', a song for Brood's daughter of the same name.
The rest of the set was made up of new songs from the mini-album 'SVN FNGRS' including 'Seven Fingers' & 'When they come to murder me'and a cover of Garry Green’s 'That Burnt Out Rock And Roll' all of which sounded great to these Frank friendly ears.
So no hits and no old favourites tonight, "I ain't gonna play it" was his response to Pixies requests, "Just like when you see Van Morrison, and I'm a fat bastard like Van Morrison too". A good night was had by all, except those looking for a Pixies unplugged set, and another chapter in the career of Frank/Francis/Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV was unleashed on the Manchester public.
