Photos and review by Nicole Sepulveda
@__nik__pics

The Breeders returned to San Francisco’s Castro Theatre on August 23 for the second of two nights, bringing a mix of longtime favorites, deeper cuts and a handful of newer songs to one of the city’s most iconic venues.

Opening the night was San Francisco’s own Imperial Teen, the indie-pop band formed in the mid-’90s by Roddy Bottum, Will Schwartz, Jone Stebbins and Lynn Truell. Their connection to The Breeders actually goes back decades: Kelley Deal was reportedly their first choice to produce Imperial Teen’s 1996 debut Seasick, making them a fitting opener for these shows.

The Breeders themselves formed in 1989 as a side project for Kim Deal of Pixies and Tanya Donelly of Throwing Muses. Over the years the lineup changed, eventually settling into the familiar combination of Kim and Kelley Deal, Josephine Wiggs and Jim Macpherson. That lineup recorded 1993’s Last Splash in San Francisco, giving these Castro shows an added bit of hometown history.

Night two pulled from across the band’s catalog, including “Doe,” “Saints,” “Invisible Man,” “Divine Hammer,” “No Aloha,” “I Just Wanna Get Along” and “Do You Love Me Now?” The biggest crowd reaction, unsurprisingly, came with “Cannonball,” which closed out the evening.

The older favorites were mixed with newer material including “Bite,” “Ghost,” “Slo Dancing” and “Alien Eyes.” Obviously unfamiliar songs aren’t going to get the same immediate response as something like “Divine Hammer” or “Cannonball,” but I liked that they were worked naturally into the set instead of being separated from the songs everyone already knew.

Night two also included their cover of The Beatles’ “Happiness Is a Warm Gun,” originally recorded for Pod, replacing “Hellbound” from the previous night’s set.

One thing that stood out Sunday night was the lighting. The show actually started with the entire band pretty dark, but when Kelley had trouble seeing her setlist, Kim asked for a spotlight on her. That definitely solved one problem, but the light stayed focused on Kelley while Kim, Josephine and Jim were left much darker for the rest of the set. After seeing photos from Saturday’s show, the first night appeared to have much more balanced lighting across the stage. From a photography standpoint, Sunday was a little challenging, but still workable once I adjusted for the little patches of light that sometimes landed in the right spot. I look forward to seeing The Breeders again at Daisy Chain Fields’ first music festival, being held this Saturday August 29th in Irvine!