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“You loved me before— do you love me now?” she asked with a wink. Her addressee responded in kind with a whoop and a gracious wave of the hand.
It’s difficult enough to propose that question to one partner, but to ask a flotilla of thousands the same is vulnerability at its apex. Kim Deal, formerly of Pixies, hid behind little more than her guitar as she sang the above strain. Here, at the FYF Fest, where a level of calculated cool is required of most of the acts, Deal’s Breeders hammed it up and did its own thing.
Better with Age


If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, suggested the Breeders’ performance on the cheekily named Carrie Stage (a reference to another icon of the 1990s, Sex and the City). The quartet, with assistance from violinist Carrie Bradley, blasted through the entirety of its landmark 1993 album, Last Splash, with a giddiness of groups half its age. (Let it be known that Bradley shreds. She turned a classical instrument into a firecracker that popped and shocked.)
When Deal reminisced about recording the alternarock essential, a scrappy audience member said, “Nineteen ninety-three? That’s when I was born!” Looking around that dusty field, the young lad was in the majority. Perhaps these Gen Y members had meandered over with curiosity over what their older siblings or – gulp – parents had been so enthusiastic about. Or maybe they were just trying to secure an early spot for Deerhunter. (Weren’t they pleased as punch when head Hunter Bradford Cox ambled out to sing the sludgy “Saints” with Deal!)Those of a certain age, however, were all about the real Deal.

Or Deals, considering Kim’s twin sister, Kelley, backs her up on guitar. Kelley had her moment in the sun – that achingly hot Downtown Los Angeles sun – when she took on lead vocals for the passive-aggressive wallop of “I Just Want To Get Along.” Kim kept flashing glances at her kin, lovingly riling up applause for her sister.
Sound and the Fury

There was a bit of an exodus from the Carrie Stage when the band dipped into the syrupy trudge of “Mad Lucas,” a psychedelic sigh befitting of the setting sun in the distance. But the faithful remained enraptured. To this writer’s left, a couple comprising a riot-grrrl and a lanky fellow who sang along to every word. The Deals fed off those spurts of energy, smiling with eyes aglow toward band mates Josephine Wiggs on bass and Jim Macpherson on drums.
“We look fantastic!” Kelley purred to Kim. The crowd agreed, emitting happy yips between chunky bass riffs and spiraling surf guitars. They sounded rather fabulous, too. Perhaps the technical prowess of a perfect live concert wasn’t there, but other FYF artists had been plagued by substandard audio throughout the day. (Dan Deacon, playing a nighttime set on the Charlotte Stage, warned his fans that his crew had soundchecked earlier, but the soundboard somehow altered his settings.)
Making a Lasting Splash

One could hear the influence of Last Splash across the field in the guise of Ty Segall’s distorted folk, or on the recordings of FYF alumnus Best Coast. There might not have been punky headliners Yeah Yeah Yeahs without the Deals first combining feminine lyrics with masculine feral axes.
Maybe the Breeders’ reach wasn’t overtly evident amid the hip kids on that sweltering Saturday, but when Kim insisted via her most popular song, “Cannonball,” that “I know you, little libertine,” they shouted back merrily. The alternative rock culture might look a little different than it did in 1993 (though, babydoll dresses have made a comeback), but the Breeders’ brand of solid jams has survived the generation gap.