By Tyler Fassnacht

When I got to the show I was a little surprised to find that the vast majority of the crowd seemed to be over 30, even though the more I thought about it the more it made sense. The Breeders enjoyed the height of their success in the mid 90’s and that fact combined with the output from the audience really proved to me how dedicated Breeders fans are.

The show started out with The Whispertown 2000, which is one of the worst band names I’ve heard in a long time, but as they played through their set I was pleasantly surprised that for a band with an awful name they were actually really good. Female vocal harmonies and sweet country-folk-rock tunes flowed from the four piece, who often had members switching instruments. This made for a really funny moment when one of the girls went to play drums only to have to put some guys t-shirt in front of her dress, “I didn’t plan my wardrobe very well”, she exclaimed. Whispertown made me feel very comfortable as a listener. There was chatting between audience and band and they even picked a fan from the crowd to help sing on a song. The band received a hefty amount of applause and cheers, but when the Breeders came on it was obvious who everyone came to see.

From the moment the band hit the stage, to the short breaks between songs, right up to when they left, the audience never cheered with anything short of all they had. Little did I know how loud these middle age rock fans could really be. Even though the Breeders are a five-piece band, it is really all about the Deal twins and they held the attention for the whole night. Kelly seemed almost nervous that she would mess up and she was very sweet when she spoke (she even had a Mad Rollin Dolls t-shirt on), but Kim was completely different. She jumped up and down and shook her guitar violently with each sonic blast and I do not remember seeing her once without a huge smile, I believed she was genuinely happy to be there and it was hard for me not to enjoy myself with the Deal sisters being so darn cute. Also I think the setlist helped. The show was filled heavily with Last Splash tracks (Divine Hammer, No Aloha, Cannonball, etc.) with several others from Pod, Title TK and Mountain Battles, something I do not think anyone minded. Watching them perform made me remember why the Breeders were/are so special as a band. They have catchy songs filled with poppy hooks and noisy songs that drone on and on. The Breeders have always been very good at being diverse in their songs, but retaining that special ingredient that makes it obviously them.

After a set and an encore, all of which only lasted about an hour, too short in my opinion, Kim thanked us and left with the rest of the band. For the sake of everyone there in the room, I hope they realized just how much Madison loves the Breeders.

Myspace: The Breeders
MP3: The Breeders – “Bang On”