The Breeders: a Show Review By Captain Willard          It's a tad cliche', but "faded glory" was the first phrase that came to mind when I recently attended a concert by The Breeders. The years have not been terribly kind to Kim Deal, but neither has the music industry.          Still, being a former member of The Pixies, Kim's undeniable place in the rock and roll dynasty made it hard for me to pass up a fifteen dollar show.          Kim formed The Breeders with her sister Kelley and other members back in the early nineties, when not caring was still cool. They had a hit with the album Last Splash in 1993 before entering a nine year lull, which included; the loss of two members, the addition of three members from the punk band Fear, and a new album, Title T.K., released in May of 2002.          I caught them in Dallas on the last night of the Title T.K. tour. The crowd was full of eager-faced thirty-somethings who had been waiting close to a decade for this night.          It's hard to be objective about a show when you are so biased to someone who was once an underground rock icon, but I'll give it my best shot.          It's 2002 and The Breeders still don't care, whether it's cool anymore or not. This sort of indifference manifested itself in the less than precise guitar work and undue volume, which drowned out the majority of the vocals. Who said rock and roll was about precision anyway?          Still, The Breeders put on a good show. They opened with a few raucus punk tunes off their first album, Pod. A few songs later, Kim was belting out the garbled vocals to Cannonball, The Breeders' one radio hit off Last Splash. The band was smiling, the new guitarist occasionally broke out into Doobie Brothers riffs, and even though Kim and Kelley occasionally missed a note, The Breeders were still jamming.          In between songs, the Deal sisters' sarcastic bickering provided a comical relief to what might have been just an adequate performance. The Breeders' lack of pretense is refreshing given the throngs of today's pompous rock acts. Take, for instance, Kim's self-proclaimed "K-Mart look."          The highlight came when The Breeders played one of my favorite tunes, Full on Idle, and a three hundred pound behemoth found it appropriate to shove his way through the entire crowd, including me. Following this was a chaotic rendition of a Fear song, which resulted in members of the opening bands diving frantically into a rather small audience.          Overall, the performance was sloppy, dirty, and very loud, but that's rock and roll. Well, it was in the early nineties anyway, and I loved every minute of it. The band's demeanor, coupled with their careless enthusiasm, gives them a certain endearing quality and you can pretty much forgive any mistakes in the instrumentation.          Kim Deal is definitely not performing at the caliber of The Pixies or even The Breeders in their prime. However, the addition of the three new members adds a degree of professionalism not seen before in The Breeders. It should also be kept in mind that the songs played now are those written by Kim in her nine years off and should not be considered the result of a true five member collaboration.          Given that, it will be interesting to see if The Breeders cut into new creative territory with the next effort, or simply remain a fond relic of the Nirvana era.          Either way, I have to catch them on their next time around because I didn't get Kim Deal's signature. After all, she WAS in The Pixies. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Back