The Breeders Tour 2014

The 2014 tour by American alternative rock band the Breeders comprised thirteen concerts in the central and western United States in September 2014. The group's lineup for their 1993 album Last Splash consisted of Josephine Wiggs, Jim Macpherson, Kim Deal, and Kelley Deal. Wiggs and Macpherson were not members for the group's next albums, Title TK (2002) and Mountain Battles (2008). In 2013, the 1993 lineup reunited for a tour to commemorate Last Splash's 20th anniversary, and the following year began working on new material together. Invited to open for Neutral Milk Hotel's September 18 concert at the Hollywood Bowl, they planned a tour to lead up to this show, using the opportunity to practice their recent compositions.

The Breeders Tour 2014
Tour by The Breeders
Start dateSeptember 2, 2014 (2014-09-02)
End dateSeptember 20, 2014 (2014-09-20)
No. of shows13
The Breeders concert chronology

Between September 2 and September 17, the Breeders performed in eleven cities, including St. Louis, Denver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, and Las Vegas. Support bands the Funs and the Neptunas opened for them at five and six of these shows, respectively. The group then played at the Hollywood Bowl concert, and finished the tour on September 20 at the Goose Island 312 Urban Block Party event in Chicago. As well as their new songs, they performed numerous selections from Last Splash and Pod (1990). The tour received good reviews from critics; appraisal included comments that the performances were rousing, and that the band was as good as—or better than—in its heyday.

Background

In 1993, the Breeders released their second album, Last Splash.[1] At this time, the group's lineup consisted of sisters Kim and Kelley Deal on guitar and vocals, Josephine Wiggs on bass and vocals, and Jim Macpherson on drums.[2] Last Splash was successful in various countries worldwide,[n 1] and the group toured extensively and played at Lollapalooza 1994.[1] In November 1994, Kelley Deal was arrested on drug-related charges, and Wiggs left the band in the mid-1990s and got involved in other musical projects.[1] Macpherson continued playing with Kim Deal in her side-project group, the Amps, and then in the 1996 incarnation of the Breeders,[8][9] but quit the band in 1997.[10] The Breeders' lineups for their next two albums, Title TK (2002) and Mountain Battles (2008), included the Deal sisters, Mando Lopez, and Jose Medeles, as well as Richard Presley on Title TK.[11][12] In 2013, Wiggs and Macpherson rejoined the Deals to tour the 20th anniversary of Last Splash[13][14]—the LSXX Tour.[15][n 2]

On December 31, 2013, the Breeders performed their final concert on the 60-date tour in Austin, Texas.[15] The group enjoyed the LSXX concerts, and decided they would like to record new music together.[13] Throughout 2014, Wiggs traveled from her home in Brooklyn, New York to Dayton, Ohio, near where Macpherson and both Deals lived.[13][17] The group began practicing new material in Kim Deal's basement,[13] including compositions by her and one by Wiggs.[13][18] By August, there were three new songs they could play well, two less so, and others they had not yet practiced.[13] Reported titles were "Skinhead #2", "Simone", "All Nerve", and "Launched".[13] The band Neutral Milk Hotel asked the Breeders to open for them at a Hollywood Bowl concert to be held on September 18.[13][19] The latter decided to go on tour leading up to this show and to perform some new compositions in preparation for their eventual recording.[13][19][n 3]

Performances and reception
Stops on the Breeders' 2014 tour included the Showbox in Seattle.[22]

The September 2014 tour comprised thirteen American dates, all in western and central states.[15] At various shows—between which the Breeders traveled by van[23]—the Funs,[24][25] the Neptunas,[22][26] and Kelley Stoltz[27] were the opening acts.[n 4] The tour began in early September with dates in St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri, and then continued west to Denver, Salt Lake City, and Garden City, Idaho.[15] On September 10, the Breeders started a short Pacific Coast stretch, performing in Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco.[15][n 5] These were followed by Las Vegas and Phoenix, then west again to San Diego,[15] leading up to their concert on September 18 at the Hollywood Bowl with Neutral Milk Hotel and Daniel Johnston.[32] Breeder's Digest, their official website, announced Carrie Bradley's reunion with the band for this show.[15] Following the Hollywood concert, the Breeders finished their tour at the Goose Island 312 Urban Block Party event in Chicago on September 20, with groups such as Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Thao & the Get Down Stay Down.[33]

In addition to the new compositions "Simone", "Skinhead #2", "All Nerve", and "Launched", the Breeders performed many songs from their albums Pod (1990) and Last Splash.[34][35] Among these were "Saints", "Cannonball", "No Aloha", and "Divine Hammer" from Last Splash, as well as "Doe", "Happiness Is a Warm Gun", and "Iris" from Pod.[35][36] They also played "Off You" from Title TK and the title track from the Safari EP (1992).[34][37] Another composition they performed was "Walking with a Killer",[36][37] which had originally been released in 2012[38]—with the B-side "Dirty Hessians"—as the first in a series of solo 7" singles by Kim Deal,[39][40] and which the Breeders had played in 2013 on their LSXX Tour.[13][n 6]

The band's performances on the 2014 tour were generally well received. Regarding their September 3 concert in Kansas City, Danny Phillips of Blurt wrote that the Breeders "like wine, seem to improve with age", adding that nothing about the show could have been better;[37] The Kansas City Star's Timothy Finn likewise summed the night up as "an evening that exceeded its promise".[34] Critic Lissa Townsend Rodgers of the Vegas Seven website commended their rousing performances of "New Year" and "Cannonball" at their Las Vegas concert on September 16[35]—a show also enjoyed by Leslie Ventura of Las Vegas Weekly, who noted the confidence with which the band played.[36] Reviewing the September 17 date in San Diego, critic Alex Packard of Listensd.com opined that the Breeders "deliver[ed] the classics like they wrote them yesterday and new material in no less of a moving way".[42] Both Keith Plocek of LA Weekly and Philip Cosores of Consequence of Sound liked the September 18 concert at the Hollywood Bowl;[41][43] Cosores rated a few of the performances as impeccable, and commented that Kim Deal's "rock and roll soul is still as strong as ever".[41]

Tim Hinely, also of Blurt, wrote that although the Breeders’ showing in Denver on September 5 could by no means be considered first rate, it was nonetheless enjoyable;[44] in Portland on September 11, 94/7's Yume Delegato heard the group's performance as appealingly unpolished and heartfelt, but asserted that some of the new songs did not leave a strong impression.[45]

Dates
List of concert dates, cities, states, venues, and support bands
Date (2014)[15] City[15] State[15] Country[15] Venue or event[15] Support
September 2 St. Louis Missouri United States Off Broadway The Funs[24]
September 3 Kansas City Record Bar The Funs[25]
September 5 Denver Colorado Summit Music Hall The Funs[44]
September 7 Salt Lake City Utah Urban Lounge The Funs[46]
September 8 Garden City Idaho Visual Arts Collective The Funs[47]
September 10 Seattle Washington The Showbox The Neptunas[22]
September 11 Portland Oregon Wonder Ballroom The Neptunas[26]
September 13 San Francisco California The Fillmore Kelley Stoltz,[27] The Neptunas[48]
September 15 Las Vegas Nevada Bunkhouse Saloon The Neptunas[49]
September 16 Phoenix Arizona Crescent Ballroom The Neptunas[50]
September 17 San Diego California The Casbah The Neptunas[51]
September 18 Los Angeles Hollywood Bowl Neutral Milk Hotel (headliner), Daniel Johnston[32]
September 20 Chicago Illinois Goose Island 312 Urban Block Party Thao & the Get Down Stay Down, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Cayucas[33]

Notes
  1. It went platinum in the United States;[3] gold in Australia,[4] Canada,[5] and France;[6] and silver in the United Kingdom.[7]
  2. According to Kelly Deal, both Lopez and Medeles ceded their spots in the group amicably, and were supportive of the Deals' wish to work with Wiggs and Macpherson again.[16]
  3. By November 2014, the Breeders had recorded two of the compositions—"All Nerve" and "Skinhead #2"—with engineer Steve Albini.[20] Their album of new material All Nerve was released in March 2018, containing these songs but not "Simone" or "Launched".[21]
  4. The Funs were devotees of the Breeders, and became involved in the tour when member Philip Jerome Lesicko sent a video of a Funs' live performance to Kim Deal; she liked it and invited them to be an opening act.[28][29] Deal was also an admirer of the Neptunas,[30] who had been inactive for several years but reunited when the Breeders asked them to join the 2014 tour.[31]
  5. Originally, they had not planned to perform in San Francisco, and were to play at the CS2V Festival in San Jose instead; when it became uncertain whether the musical part of this festival would be held, the Breeders redirected their tour to San Francisco.[15]
  6. Full set lists of a few of the concerts have been reported. In Kansas City, the Breeders played
    • "Off You"
    • "Saints"
    • "Hag"
    • "Skinhead #2"
    • "SOS"
    • "Limehouse"
    • "Simone"
    • "Doe"
    • "Hellbound"
    • "Walking with a Killer"
    • "Fortunately Gone"
    • "Happiness is a Warm Gun"
    • "Launched"
    • "New Year"
    • "Cannonball"
    • "All Nerve"
    • "No Aloha"
    • "Divine Hammer" and during the encore "Glorious"
    • "Safari"
    • "Iris".[34][37]
    At their Las Vegas show, the set list was almost the same, with some variation in the order, and with the inclusion of Last Splash's "I Just Wanna Get Along" and "Do You Love Me Now?" instead of "Launched".[35][36] During their shorter Hollywood set, they performed this album's "Drivin' on 9", as well as twelve of the songs from the Kansas City and Las Vegas concerts.[41]

Footnotes
  1. Petrusich 2013, p. 2
  2. Last Splash (CD booklet)
  3. American certifications – Breeders, The
  4. Ryan 2011, p. 41
  5. Gold Platinum Database
  6. Les Certifications
  7. Certified Awards Search
  8. Erlewine
  9. Phares
  10. Aston 2013, p. 556
  11. Title TK (CD booklet)
  12. Mountain Battles (CD booklet)
  13. Hopper 2014
  14. Brooks 2014
  15. 2014 Tour Dates and New Music / 2013 LSXX Tour Dates
  16. Power 2013
  17. McDonald 2014
  18. Cole 2014, p. 2
  19. Silvers 2014, p. 3
  20. Jones 2014
  21. The Breeders: 'All Nerve'
  22. The Breeders with The Neptunas (Showbox)
  23. Wenzel 2014
  24. The Breeders is Completely SOLD OUT
  25. The Breeders, The Funs (Record Bar)
  26. The Breeders, The Neptunas (The Portland Mercury)
  27. The Breeders with Kelley Stoltz
  28. Lees 2014
  29. Galil 2016
  30. The Deal On The New Breeders Album
  31. Russo 2017
  32. Neutral Milk Hotel, The Breeders, Daniel Johnston
  33. Bernot 2014
  34. Finn 2014
  35. Rodgers 2014
  36. Ventura 2014
  37. Phillips 2014
  38. Ōtaka 2018
  39. Pelly 2013
  40. Belhan 2013
  41. Cosores 2014
  42. Packard 2014
  43. Plocek 2014
  44. Hinely 2014
  45. Delegato 2014
  46. The Breeders, The Funs (Urban Lounge)
  47. Atkins 2014
  48. The Breeders (Time Out)
  49. The Breeders, The Neptunas (Bunkhouse Saloon)
  50. The Breeders, The Neptunas (Crescent Ballroom)
  51. The Breeders, The Neptunas (Casbah)
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References
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