The band announced the stretch of dates on social media with the caption, “For the first time ever – playing #Bossanova & #TrompeLeMonde in their entireties + others from the catalogue, 3 night residencies in intimate venues.”

The noisy American alt-rock band will be taking their classic 90s albums on the road in March next year. The band will start with a three-day residency at the Olympia in Dublin on the 8^th March, then play three shows at the Albert Hall in Manchester starting on the 12^th March, and before playing three consecutive dates at the O2 Forum Kentish Forum in London starting on the 16^th March.

They will then travel to Amsterdam playing three shows at the Paradiso and conclude the tour in Paris with a residency at the L’Olympia.

Tickets will be on sale from Friday 9^th June at 9 am BST / 10 am CET. For tickets see here.

Nearly 33 years ago, Pixies released their third studio album Bossanova on 4AD featuring the two energetic singles “Velouria” and “Dig for Fire”. The record reached number 3 in the UK and 70 on the US Billboard 200. Listen to the single “Velouria” below:

The following year the band released Trompe de Monde also produced by Gil Norton and released via 4AD. The critically adored album is the last Pixies record to feature bassist Kim Deal and the last album recorded before the band’s decade-long hiatus. Stand-out tracks include “Alec Eiffel” about the engineer who designed the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty, “Letter to Memphis” Black Francis’ take on Chuck Berry’s song “Memphis, Tennessee”, and the band’s upbeat cover of the Jesus and Mary Chain’s “Head On”. Listen to the cheeky single “Alec Eiffel” below:

Currently, Black Francis and the gang are embarking on the second leg of their North America in support of their latest and eighth studio album Doggerel. This March the band completed the European and UK leg of the tour at The Roundhouse in London. Released last year, the album was recorded during the pandemic in an eco-friendly studio in Gulliford and produced by English producer Tom Dalgety. The album included the three singles “There’s a Moon On“, “Vault of Heaven“, and “Dregs of Wine“. Listen to the album’s lead single “There’s a Moon On” below:

Pixies now consists of lead singer Black Francis, Joey Santiago on lead guitar, David Lovering on drums, and Paz Lenchantin on bass. In March last year, the band broke their 2 year long hiatus to drop the non-album single “Human Crime“.

See below for Pixies’ upcoming UK and Europe tour dates:

08/03/23 – Olympia – Dublin
09/03 – Olympia – Dublin
10/03 – Olympia – Dublin
12/03 – Albert Hall – Manchester
13/03 – Albert Hall – Manchester
14/03 – Albert Hall – Manchester
16/03 – O2 Forum Kentish Forum – London
17/03 – O2 Forum Kentish Forum – London
18/03 – O2 Forum Kentish Forum – London
20/03 – Paradiso – Amsterdam
21/03 – Paradiso – Amsterdam
22/03 – Paradiso – Amsterdam
25/03 – L’Olympia – Paris
26/03 – L’Olympia – Paris
27/03 – L’Olympia – Paris

The tour announcement comes after Pixies released their eighth full studio album, Doggerel, in September.  The album came out on the Infectious Music label, to largely positive critical response.  The release was preceded by the singles “There’s a Moon On”, “Vault of Heaven” and “Dregs of the Wine”.  The recording process for the new album was also filmed, becoming a short documentary on the band that was released in June 2022.

In a recent press release discussing the new album, guitarist Joey Santiago said, “This time around we have grown.  We no longer have under two-minute songs.  We have little breaks, more conventional arrangements but still our twists in there.”

Vocalist/ guitarist Black Francis went on to add, “We’re trying to do things that are very big and bold and orchestrated.  The punky stuff, I really like playing it but you just cannot artificially create that shit.  There’s another way to do this, there’s other things we can be doing with this extra special energy we’re encountering.”

The new album also marks the first songwriting credits for Joey Santiago on two of its tracks, “Dregs of the Wine” and “Pagan Man”.  Vocalist/ guitarist Black Francis said of “Pagan Man“, the album’s final song, “I was not in the mood to compose a lyric because I was already spent, if you will. So Joey wrote the lyric.”  He went on to explain that the song was, “an unfinished bit of music that the producer kept insisting that we try again”.  Doggerel was recorded in Vermont’s Guildford Sound, an eco-friendly recording studio, with the basis for many songs being the pre-recorded demos Black Francis had created in the time following the band’s seventh album release, 2019’s Beneath the Eyrie.

Check out footage of the band performing their new single, “There’s a Moon On”, live from Manchester’s Band on the Wall earlier this year.

Tickets for the 2023 UK and European tour are now on sale here.

You can also find full dates and locations for the tour below:

21/02/2023 – Cirkus – Stockholm, SE
22/02 – Sentrum Scene – Oslo, NO
25/02 – DR Koncerthuset – Kobenhavn S, DE
26/02 – Columbiahalle – Berlin, DE
27/02 – Grosse Freiheit 36 – Hamburg, DE
28/02 – Tonhalle – Munich, DE
03/03 – Oosterpoort – Groningen, NE
04/03 – AMARE – Den Haag, NE
05/03 – Tivoli Vredenburg – Utrecht, NE
07/03 – Forest National – Bruxelles, BE
09/03 – Sant Jordi Club – Barcelona, ES
10/03 – WiZink Centre – Madrid, ES
11/03 – Coliseum – A Coruna, ES
13/03 – Campo Pequeno – Lisbon, PT
15/03  -L’Olympia – Paris, FR
16/03 – L’Olympia – Paris, FR
17/03 – Forum Birmingham – Birmingham, UK
18/03 – Cardiff International Arena – Cardiff, UK
20/03 – Roundhouse – London, UK
21/03 – Roundhouse – London, UK

Given Black Francis’ prolific songwriting, Joey’s contributions would usually be to build his distinctive style into his bandmate’s songs. But this time around it was the reverse approach, with Joey’s instrumental – a mix of explosive power chords that recall Pete Townshend and a pummelling punk attack – completed by Black’s decadent, surrealist lyrics, which reference Van Halen and Black Foxx while drinking under the iconic Hollywood sign.

In a press release, Black explained the song is about, “Living in Los Angeles in the ‘90s with my then-wife, hanging out with Joey and his ex-wife, lots of trips to Las Vegas, a lot of drinking, little bit drug taking, some genuine good times.” 

Flashforward to the present day. Joey was jamming at home on his guitar and the initial idea behind the song may well have been lost to the moment. He recalls, “I guess I was in kind of a zombie state, just playing. After I stopped playing I put it down and went, ‘Well, that was a fucking waste of time, what a piece of shit I am.’ I beat myself up a lot, but my girlfriend, unbeknownst to me, was recording me. She played it back to me and I go, ‘Fuck! Hold on a second here! This stuff is good!’” 

‘Dregs of the Wine’ emerges after Pixies have spent the summer headlining large outdoor shows in the UK and Europe, hitting Hyde Park as special guests to Pearl Jam, and playing a tiny Manchester show at Band On the Wall. Their legendary status has been heightened by the recent Doggerel singles ‘There’s A Moon On’ and ‘Vault of Heaven’, leading to an A-list and a Steve Lamacq premiere at 6 Music, as well as coverage stretching from NME to The Guardian to Spin.

Having just headlined the End of the Road Festival, Pixies’ remaining 2022 live shows include shows in North America, South America, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Please see their website for a full list of all international dates.