Live Shows: Kim Deal and Ratboys, The Wilbur, Boston, MA 3/10/24

Last year Kim Deal released an excellent solo album, Nobody Loves You More. It was unlike anything we had heard from the alt-rock legend in her decades long career, but still fit what she's always done perfectly. When it was announced that her solo tour would be coming to The Wilbur in Boston, I knew I wanted to go, especially since I wasn't quite sure what to expect.

Taking the stage with ten other musicians (including two horns, a violin, a cello, and two back up singers), Kim Deal proceeded to play all of Nobody Loves You More from start to finish. The songs had a new life live, with musicianship and the full use of an eleven piece band on full display. Kim Deal seemed a little nervous playing these songs live, and even commented on that feeling during the show. With Pixies and The Breeders, a lot can be covered up by pure alt-rock volume. That's not the case with this collection of mostly delicate and quiet songs. Songs like "Coast," "Crystal Breath," and album closer "A Good Time Pushed" were my personal highlights for this part of the show.

Once Nobody Loves You More was completed, all the musicians left the stage, with Deal and her cello player returning too quickly for this to have been an encore. They played a version of Deal's 2014 solo song "Beautiful Moon" before being joined by the rest of the band for some Breeders songs. It's not shocking that they played songs like "Night of Joy" and "Do You Love Me Now?," but it's more surprising that they didn't play the hits like "Divine Hammer" or "Last Splash." It does make sense since those or more rockin' songs than the ones included on her new solo album, so they did fit the vibe of the night. This was definitely a night for Kim Deal's die hard fans, and they left quite happy.

Chicago's Ratboys opened the show with a forty-five minute set of their excellent indie rock meets country. They opted to play a set that included some unreleased songs off their upcoming album, and if they are any indication, that release will be a full out rock album. They did play some older songs like "Elvis is in the Freezer" and "The Window," and I'm not two for two on crying while watching them play "The Window" live. It's always a challenge for a newer band opening for a legend like Kim Deal, since most of the audience is there to see their long time favorite, but the older crowd slowly put away their cell phones as their set went on as they got sucked into Ratboys.