The Breeders didn’t save “Cannonball” for their finish Friday (May 2), surprisingly serving up their best-known hit midway through a 70-minute House of Blues set. It proved to be a smart move, injecting some much-needed crowd energy into a show that, while fun and musically satisfying, felt a little too safe and a lot too sedate.
A few other reflections from the alt-rockers’ first Vegas appearance in five years:
* The band performed welcome covers of The Beatles’ “Happiness Is a Warm Gun” (a track on The Breeders’ 1990 debut LP, Pod) and Guided By Voices’ “Shocker in Gloomtown,” Kim Deal’s shout-out to “another Ohio band.”
* As at Coachella, chatty sisters Kim and Kelley Deal bantered about their Alzheimer’s-suffering mother between tunes, debating whether she could be considered “crazy” or not. It really wasn’t funny the first time.
* The core quartet—the Deals, bassist Mando Lopez and drummer Jose Medeles—were supplemented by guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist “Cheryl from Florida,” who Kim joked the band found on Craigslist. Or maybe she was serious ...
Ryan Olbrysh photos