The Pixies roll into downtown Greenville next Tuesday night, bringing four decades of alternative-rock history and a bassist who’s barely two years into the job. The band that helped invent the quiet-loud-quiet sound that shaped a generation of rock plays the Peace Center Concert Hall at 7:30 p.m. on September 15, with South Carolina act Fat, Evil Children opening the show.
The concert lands as part of the band’s P40 tour, marking 40 years since Charles Michael Kitteridge Thompson IV — better known by his stage name Black Francis — and guitarist Joey Santiago formed the group in Boston in 1986 after meeting as roommates at Boston University, according to Britannica. As the Greenville Journal reports, the current lineup rounds out with drummer David Lovering and bassist-vocalist Emma Richardson, who joined the band in March 2024 after previously playing with British rock band Band of Skulls. Richardson replaced Paz Lenchantin, who had held the bass role for a decade before departing to pursue solo projects, per Guitar World.
A Band Still Writing New Chapters
The Pixies rose to prominence in the alternative rock scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s, releasing landmark albums including Surfer Rosa, Doolittle, and Bossanova — records whose influence has been cited by bands ranging from Nirvana and Radiohead to Alice in Chains and David Bowie, according to the Greenville Journal's reporting. Original bassist Kim Deal helped anchor that classic run before leaving the band in 2013. The group broke up for years before reuniting in 2004, and it has stayed active ever since, releasing five new albums since the reunion.
The most recent of those, The Night the Zombies Came, arrived October 25, 2024, through BMG — the band's ninth full-length studio album and Richardson's recording debut with the group, according to Premier Guitar. The 13-track record was produced by Tom Dalgety. Guitarist Joey Santiago told the Greenville Journal that making new music has helped keep the band going, and that he still feels blessed to be part of the group all these years later.
Fans in Greenville can expect a mix of eras onstage. The Pixies will play newer songs alongside classics at the Peace Center, according to the Greenville Journal, which likely means a set spanning early staples like Debaser, Monkey Gone to Heaven, Where Is My Mind?, and Here Comes Your Man alongside newer material. Santiago has said the Pixies was the first band he ever joined, a detail that underscores just how far the group has traveled since its earliest local gigs, when the band reportedly prepared only 20 to 30 minutes of material to play.
Digging Into the Archives
The band's 40th-anniversary push has come with a look backward as well as forward. In 2025, the Pixies officially reissued The Purple Tapes, the original 1987 demo recordings associated with the band's 4AD debut, according to a Bass Magazine Facebook post. The archival release sits alongside the band's continued touring; in 2024, the Pixies co-headlined a North American tour with Modest Mouse, with Cat Power supporting.
A Growing Stage for Greenville's Music Scene
The Peace Center Concert Hall itself seats 2,115 people, and tickets for the September 15 show start at $66, according to the Peace Center. The hall is part of a six-acre downtown campus that opened November 10, 1990, per the SC Picture Project. That original project established the complex.
The article also references a Greenville Online report dated Jan. 20, 2015.
The venue has kept expanding since. The Peace Center has continued its expansion efforts, including The Mockingbird listening room. The Peace Center now hosts events and generates economic impact for South Carolina. The campus is a multi-purpose civic hub.
Tickets and additional information for the Pixies' September 15 show are available at peacecenter.org, per the Greenville Journal's reporting. With Fat, Evil Children opening the night, Upstate audiences will get both a piece of alt-rock history and a glimpse of a band that, four decades in, still isn't finished writing new material.
