CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM THE GREAT MAN’S SYDNEY SHOW HERE.

The Great Escape Festival was supposed to go ahead on the October long weekend but was unfortunately cancelled. A shame indeed, but the silver lining in this instance is that most of the acts still came out to do their own shows (Supergrass, Futureheads et al).

And so Black Francis (or Frank Black, Charles Thompson or whichever moniker you wish to choose) made his way to Sydney for his first Australian tour in over a decade. Few people will ever forgot those memorable shows that his other band The Pixies played last year, so it was easy to spot the diehard fans – all kitted out in Death to the Pixies 2007 Tour shirts.

Tonight’s support came from noisy Brisbanites Violent Soho, who, if they came out of Seattle in the early ‘90s, would have fit in perfectly with the scene of that time. Yes people: grungy alt-rock is truly alive and well. Brass and abrasive, with the attitude to match, this foursome busted out a fine selection of raucous, fiery songs. A lot of the crowd didn’t pay too much attention, but it was refreshing to see today’s newer bands getting into the whole ‘grunge thang’.

And then a stark figure took to the stage, armed only with a Fender Telecaster. Black Francis performed in solo mode for the first 25 minutes, busting out classic Pixies songs as Nimrod’s Son and Wave of Mutilation. The crowd cheered, made a lot of noise and appreciated these modern day classics. When he started singing the lines, “I met a man, he was a good man”, the crowd started to move and shake – Los Angeles would have been more effective had there been the drums, bass and acoustic guitar to back it up.

Despite the impression that the entire show would be Francis solo, out came the bassist and drummer to add some backbone to the show. One of the few times that the main man spoke was to introduce his band and to inform us the majority of tonight’s show would consist mainly of songs from Bluefinger and Svn Fngrs (the last two albums he released). So sadly there were no Catholics and little other solo material.

Some songs that did make the rounds were I Burn Today, Captain Pasty and Test Pilot Blues. Great stuff if you have the new albums, not so great if you were hoping to hear Hang On To Your Ego or anything else from his previous twelve albums. But such is life and as the performance progressed it became clear that some of the crowd were getting restless. Chatting took over and soon there was a prominent low hum hanging over the Metro Theatre, alongside the massive cloud of dope.

This wasn’t a subdued performance from Francis. When Threshold Apprehension was performed you could see the veins in his neck pop, as if he was performing Debaser for the first time to an audience and losing none of his screechy vocals that helped make him such a seminal musical figure. But at the end of the day, he’s a middle-aged family man and to him this was just another gig, neither fantastic nor terrible. Just a gig. Even encores don’t sit right with him, as there wasn’t any. But still, it was the legendary Black Francis – take it or leave it.