Breeders plucky at HOB, with pouting optional | GuideLive.com | Arts/Entertainment News and Events | Dallas-Fort Worth | The Dallas Morning News

Breeders plucky at HOB, with pouting optional

12:00 AM CDT on Wednesday, May 7, 2008

By MIKE DANIEL / The Dallas Morning News
mdaniel@dallasnews.com

For the Breeders, you'd think smiling would be optional.

Maybe not Kurt Cobain optional, Thom Yorke optional, or even Liz Phair optional. As cynical as former (er, current? Eh, let's not go there) Pixies bassist Kim Deal has been about music – not to mention the bitterness of her bandmate and sister, Kelley – the Breeders have every right to cop that pouty, seething attitude that's such a touchstone of 1990s indie rock.

Not on Tuesday at the House of Blues, though. Kim and Kelley cackled, chided and chuckled throughout the band's 80-minute set in front of about 250 well-wishers, all the while delivering a predictably plucky but conclusively satisfying performance.

In fact, the sisters' joyous attitude is what made the show work. If Kim had brought any surliness onstage, the percussive hymnal depths of "Bang On" would have been too dark to recover from. If Kelley had been more nervous than she appeared, the harmonies on "We're Gonna Rise" and her palpable felicity during the straight-ahead Tasties cover "It's the Love" wouldn't have tasted as sweet.

As Kelley played that song, Kim stood stage right and grinned proudly. It's plain that the Breeders feel reinvigorated. Their adventurous and folksy new CD, Mountain Battles, is Exhibit A; this entertaining gig was more evidence. If either Deal hauls around animosity toward anyone now, it's locked up in a road case somewhere in the tour bus's bowels.

The show wasn't flawless; vocals boomed from too much reverb, Kelley's guitar playing remains choppy, and Kim regularly ran arpeggios ahead of Jose Medeles' beat. But imperfections are part of the Breeders' quaint roots-punk charm.

You couldn't help but bounce a bit as they played the 1993 hit "Cannonball," even if the Deals' guitars washed each other out. You couldn't help but grin as the siblings ripped apart the German language during "German Studies."

All in good-grrl fun, with pouts optional.

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