When the Pixies announced they would reunite in 2004 for a series of international concerts, most music fans were sharply divided: Should they be ecstatic or just take another long drag from an American Spirit and bemoan that even the almighty Pixies have a price? Either way, anyone who went to see them got nothing less than a thrilling reminder of why we regard the Pixies as one of the most influential, creative and downright awesome bands of all-time.
The reunion tour, aptly titled ""Pixies Sellout,"" only added to the Pixies' sterling legacy. Unfortunately, nothing near that could be said for the documentary ""loudQUIETloud: A Film About Pixies,"" which portrays the on-stage and behind-the-scenes goings-on of that tour. Directed by Steven Cantor and Matthew Galkin, this film is one of the most amateurish, boring and horribly lit films to scourge theaters in a long time.
It's completely absurd to think the directors even felt comfortable slipping the word ‘film' into this documentary's title. ""loudQUIETloud"" is an uninspiring collection of home video-quality shots of Frank Black, Kim Deal, David Lovering and Joey Santiago playing some of the best songs written in the last few decades but then doing nothing back stage.
A huge factor in the Pixies' break-up was simple tension—none of the members really liked each other anymore. Cantor and Galkin, their forces combined, manage to convey this information within five minutes, but then seem content to sit back and keep retelling the same narrative information over and over.
One scene shows Black sitting alone on a couch. Another shows Black sitting next to Lovering, neither speaking. The next reveals Deal and Black attempting to awkwardly strike up a conversation. Somehow, this manages to become mind-numbingly boring after half-an-hour, and one can't help but imagine the two directors shrugging their shoulders at each other and saying, ""Well, we've got these cameras, we've got these famous people and I'll be gosh-darned if that doesn't make a good film!""
One of digital media's greatest attributes—it allows far more people to make movies than film ever could because it is so easy and cheap—also gives us one of its greatest drawbacks. People spend less time getting to know their equipment and as a result their compositions and lighting end up being offensively bad. The band members are never adequately lit, with the directors seeming to exclusively rely on whatever lamps or overhead fluorescent lights happened to be on hand. At least one third of the shots of the Pixies on stage cut off the tops of their heads, and the directors have not realized that titling the camera and then shooting someone off-kilter doesn't automatically make a cool shot.
The amateurish technical abilities of the directors add up to some visually unflattering footage of the Pixies, who at this point in their lives don't need anyone going out of their way to make them look unattractive. Not to mention that ""loudQUIETloud"" commits the cardinal sin of any film—it never allows you to get lost in the world of the film because each scene, superimposition, cut or camera angle is so jarring.
The Pixies deserve far better than this documentary, especially considering the reunion concert footage shows them to be musically in top form. For whatever reason, ""loudQUIETloud"" skimps on showing the Pixies reacquainting themselves and audiences with the songs that influenced everyone from Nirvana to Modest Mouse to Guided by Voices, and instead chooses to bore its viewers to tears. Couple that with the fact that the Orpheum is showing this movie as a DVD projection—which becomes apparent when the movie starts skipping in the first five minutes—and you've got a documentary experience that must be missed.
