Click here for photos from this show in the QRO Concert Photo Gallery
Click here for QRO’s review of Black Francis at Symphony Space in New York, NY on May 17th, 2013
Click here for QRO’s review of Black Francis at Joe’s Pub in New York, NY on September 5th, 2010
Click here for photos of Black Francis at MFNW 2009 in Portland, OR in the QRO Concert Photo Gallery
In the early nineties, in the wake of the success of Nirvana, of grunge, of alternative music, it wasn’t just new acts that were getting sudden, massive attention, but also those who had toiled in the indie-underground of the eighties. Of course, some of those acts had since broken up, but the artists found new lives in the alt-boom. Jane’s Addiction may have gone, but Perry Farrell had Porno for Pyros (and Lollapalooza). Pixies may have gone, but Black Francis had Frank Black with 1993’s self-titled album and the following year’s hit Teenager of the Year.
Well, it’s 2025, and just as the Pixies came back a couple decades ago, so now has Frank Black, touring Teenager (and some Black) in full, hitting Brooklyn Steel on Saturday, February 1st.
Yes, it was an older audience on the cold night at Brooklyn Steel (QRO venue review), some of whom likely hadn’t been out to a show in ages, maybe not since Black [real name Charles Thompson, but we’re gonna call him Black here…] opened for They Might Be Giants back in 1994. But it was a strong turnout, packed crowd – and they all knew Teenager. They had listened to it back when you had to listen to an album in full on cassette or record, or it wasn’t worth getting up to skip a track on CD. And it’s a full record, 22 tracks at just over an hour. So, if there were some that weren’t your favorites, there were also more than enough that were.
Interestingly, Black & co. started not with Teenager but two memorable Frank Black songs, “Czar” and “Ten Percenter”. Also interestingly, this was not Black Francis and some new band, but included original Black/Teenager musicians bassist/keyboardist/producer Eric Drew Feldman, drummer Nick Vincent, and guitarist Lyle Workman. Yes, they were all a lot older (Black going bald early means he doesn’t look like he’s aged as much since 1994), but there was a real excitement from the band at getting to play a thirty-plus year-old record to psyched fans – Workman in particular was animated on stage, like a dad whose band never got out of the garage, now getting to play the big stage.
One neat element to the night was that Black would often give tidbits behind many of the songs. Black has long had odd and mysterious subjects for his songs (supposedly Pixies hit “This Monkey’s Gone To Heaven” isn’t about anything) – “Czar” is really about the final czar. With the verbose catchiness to so many of Teenager’s songs, it was great to find out who “Speedy Marie” was (a “professionally trained bartender” – now there’s a drink named after the song named after the drink-maker), to say nothing of learning that “Two Reelers” is about “Brooklyn’s very own” Three Stooges! Teenager opener “Whatever Happened To Pong?” is indeed about the old game, which drew a young Black & brother away from betting on bumper pool in their dad’s Cape Cod pizza place, while “Big Red” “is not about my favorite gum.”
What Teenager songs anyone enjoyed the mostest this night naturally depended on what songs one had loved for thirty-plus years. There were some obvious favorites such as “Pong” and MTV era hit single “Headache”, plus some great deeper cuts such as “Calistan” and “Olé Mulholland” (the latter, the longest on Teenager, described as one of the “epic-er tracks”). There were also the ones you hadn’t listened to since you were listening to CDs such as “I Could Stay Here Forever” or “Bad, Wicked World” that were refreshing live. Okay, maybe “Vanishing Spies” isn’t of the record’s best (Black said that his former manager admitted to loathing that song), but was still good.
After final Teenager song “Pie in the Sky” & the encore break, Black & co. returned with three more from Frank Black. Yes, they played “Los Angeles”, Black’s breakthrough solo hit single, followed by the slower “Every Time I Go Around Here” and ended the evening with the Ramones tribute (that also had a hat-tip to Menudo, as Black pointed out before playing) “I Heard Ramona Sing”.
It’s never gonna be the nineties again (would want a Clinton back in office…), but the songs of that halcyon alt-boom era are still great, both on record & live. Even if you’re no longer a Teenager and it’s not gonna be your Year.
