Photo Gallery: The Pixies and Spoon at Salt Shed • Chicago
The Pixies and Spoon
Salt Shed
Chicago, IL
September 15, 2025
Recap and Gallery by Curt Baran
Even by ’90s alt-rock standards, Pixies were weird. They sang songs about Surrealism, existential dread, drug dealers, art films, and fringe artists. For their trouble, they were met with critical acclaim and some minor commercial success. By 1993, cue the breakup. Then Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain began singing their praises, which ushered in a 2004 Second Act for the Boston quartet.
Fast forward to 2025. The band landed at Chicago’s Salt Shed on a perfect summer evening, armed with Lynch-ian vibes (a point driven home by the David Lynch composed opening song “In Heaven”) and lighting in tow, supporting their 2024 release The Night The Zombies Came.
Not content to rest on their laurels, the band has steadily released new, relevant music to avoid becoming a modern-day oldies act. So Monday evening’s show felt more like a career retrospective than a greatest hits regurgitation. Pixies’ staples like “Here Comes Your Man,” Monkey Gone To Heaven,” “Wave Of Mutilation,” “Cactus,” and “Where Is My Mind” nuzzled up next to newer material and, well, it all sounded like an evening with Pixies.
Austin, Texas’ Spoon, who have certainly shared a similar popularity arc, opened the show with what arguably could have been considered a co-headlining slot, worked their way through a setlist that felt like a Rom-Com soundtrack (“I Turn My Camera On,” “The Underdog,” “The Way We Get By”) on shuffle.
Category: Featured
