The Pixies brought their own traveling cacophony society to a sweltering DAR Constitution Hall last night and the band that originated the "soft verse/loud chorus" sound that spawned all those crappy bands getting played on alternative radio made sure those in attendance walked out of the building with huge smiles on their faces.

Frank Black and company took the stage to great fanfare, launched into a slowed down version of Wave of Mutilation and proceeded to give the sell out crowd what they came to hear. The set was chock full of note perfect versions of the band's "hits", Gigantic, UMass, pretty much anything off of Doolittle, with a few lesser known songs like Subacultcha, Broken Face, and Crackity Jones thrown in for their most fervent fans. DCist was amazed at the sheer volume of the show, especially since there were only four people on stage creating it. It was, quite simply, loud as fuck.

Black belted out tune after tune with his guttural yells, while Kim Deal sprinkled her sugary sweet backing vocals here and there. Guitarist Joey Santiago was a one man wall of sound and drummer David Lovering was thunder incarnate all night long. Deal’s singing voice was so amazing that DCist is trying to remember if we have our copies of Pod and Last Splash lying around somewhere.

Also included in the set were three cover songs; Neil Young’s Winterlong, The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Head On and one more we didn’t catch the name of. The band was all business, running through a set of over 25 songs in a very Ramones-like fashion, one after the other, with little to no crowd acknowledgement or stage banter aside from the occasional "Thank You" from Deal. But make no mistake, it was sheer aural pleasure. As good as you imagine the show sounding, it was better.

Online retail outlet CD Baby has teamed up with the band to record and produce CD copies of the final twelve gigs of the Pixies Sellout Tour (their name, not ours), which includes last night’s gig. Check Pixiediscs.com for details. The Pixies take the stage at DAR again tonight with TV on the Radio and The Bennies opening. The show is very sold out, but there’s always Craigslist.

(Photos by Kyle Gustafson and Rob Goodspeed, more photos can be found here)