Kim Deal /Morgan Nagler – The Fillmore, San Francisco 26th March 202

The Fillmore is one of the world’s great music venues and I was lucky enough to visit for the first time (and what could be the last as there are plans that the venue may close) last month. The venue was opened in the late 1960’s hosting such names as Santana, Creedence Clearwater Revival and San Francisco legends, The Grateful Dead who played the venue many times.

Support tonight comes from Morgan Nagler, the actress/musician who played an entertaining set with some great tunes and even better stories including one tale about her Dad taking acid. Orange Wine and Greetings From Mars (with a lovely droning aspect to it) were great but the wonderfully titled, Grassolene, an ode to smoking grass which certainly went down well with the audience (naughty, naughty!) ended a really entertaining set.

Kim Deal is cool…. Whether it be with the Pixies or The Breeders or her latest project where she is performing under her own name, she just seems to have this way about her that I find so enchanting. When it was announced in 2024 that she was going to release an album under her own name (Nobody Loves You More) I think many people including myself were intrigued as to where this new chapter in her career was going to take her and few were left disappointed.

Tonight’s set is split in o three different parts. First, we begin with Kim and her band playing the Nobody Loves You More album in full and we are treated to the title track as an aperitif to our evening. This gentle vibe continues with Coast, it’s trumpets making me reminisce of gentle Summer evenings. Crystal Breath is next up and as the beats get faster, my pulse is raised and this San Francisco crowd is sent into ecstasy which continues when we reach my favourite track from the album, Disobedience. Deal gives off an air that she really is so grateful that this show is so busy and that the crowd are having such a great time which I find so attractive in a performer. The egos have been checked at the door along with the coats and it is so lovely to see a crowd who are just able to stand and lose themselves in the music and not have of people recording every moment on their phones.

Big Ben Beat and Bats In The Afternoon Sky are songs that really show how wonderful Kim Deal as a solo artist is as it is at these points that she is at her most experimental and it can almost get Captain Beefheart like at times but it is followed by Summerland which is almost Kink’s like in it’s beauty. Come Running and A Good Time Pushed finish the first act and it just shows you how much faith Deal has in this material that she is willing to play it in full.

A short interval is followed by a second set which is started by Beautiful Moon and then the previously mentioned Morgan Nagler joins Kim for two tracks, The Root and Range On Castle. With the night in full swing we are treated by a song from  The Breeders, Safari and it really makes you think just what a special artist Kim Deal is having been involved in some of the most important (and indeed successful ) projects in alternative music since the late 1980’s and it is wonderful to see just how this creative tour de force shows no signs of stopping! Walking With A Killer and the horn laden Biker Gone ends the second set and if it had ended there I would have been pretty satisfied. However, this San Francisco crowd are not quite ready to head for home yet and they are treated with two from Deal’s time with The Breeders, Off You and finale Do You Love Me Now?.

So I may not get the chance to visit The Fillmore again (Oh I hope I do) but one thing is for sure is that I will be going to see Kim Deal again and I urge you to do the same!!!