The Breeders
O2 Academy, Leeds

This may ostensibly be a 30th anniversary tour of The Breeders’ breakout album Last Splash but having been named as an unlikely influence on a new generation of female musicians, the Ohio quartet are enjoying a fresh lease of life. 

Taking time out from supporting Olivia Rodrigo in the US, they play a ramshackle if crowd-pleasing set of grunge-influenced pop. It’s dominated by tracks from Last Splash, which regularly features in “greatest albums of all-time” lists, but also embraces material from across their back catalogue. 

They open with Saints, which is emblematic of their ability to combine loud-quiet dynamics with pop melodies. It owes a certain debt to the Pixies, from whom Kim Deal was moonlighting at the time of its original release, but it has a sweetness that’s utterly its own. The sound set a benchmark for the likes of Rodrigo and Beabadoobee, especially on the indie classic Cannonball. 

The track, played here mid-set, realised the band’s transition from being a side-project to a fully fledged outfit, with each member playing a crucial role in its success. Kim’s loud, distorted vocals would have been nothing without Josephine Wiggs’s bubbling bass, Kelley Deal’s crunching lead guitar, or the metallic clicking of drummer Jim MacPherson.

It’s the bands most well-known track, and the one that most people have been waiting to hear, but they have plenty more that are just as strong. Tracks from debut album Pod become more full-throttled in the live arena, with When I Was A Painter turning the simplicity of a two-chord riff into pop gold, while they showcase a harder edge with the grungy MetaGoth, on which Wiggs takes lead vocals.

It’s when they’re at their sweetest that they hit their real stride. The appeal of Do You Love Me Now? rests in the harmonies between the two sisters; Drivin’ on 9 takes the pace down a notch with its country twang; and I Just Wanna Get Along, on which Kelley sings lead, is punk-rock attitude in bright pink clothing. 

With the Deal sisters being more subdued than usual, McPherson has a rare moment to bask in the limelight. Emerging from behind his kit, he informs the audience that “Kim wants me to come out here to work on my people skills.” Navigating line-up changes and addictions within the band, he’s already demonstrated these skills in spades and survived to enjoy the victory lap. 

They finish the main set with Gigantic, the song that Kurt Cobain described as his favourite Pixies song. Co-written by Kim, her reclamation of it shows a woman comfortable with her past at a time when the band’s fuzzy charm is being rediscovered by Gen Z. The loud applause suggests they could be on course to exceed even their mid-90s success.

The Last Splash, 30th anniversary edition is released by 4AD