== Formation of Pixies, 1984-86 ==


Pixies formed in 1986 in Boston, Massachusetts after U-Mass students Charles Thompson IV and Joey Santiago met after Santiago heard Thompson and his roommate playing their guitars in the adjacent room. Santiago and Thompson quickly became friendly with one another, with Santiago introducing Thompson to the music of David Bowie and AC/DC when Thompson and Santiago became roommates at the start of the next semester. Thompson emmbarked on a six month trip to Puerto Rico as part of an exchange program, and upon returning he sent Santiago a letter, saying "Now is the time, Joe. If we are going to do it, it's now. We need to follow our dreams". Thompson was speaking in reference to forming a band, which Santiago later admitted was the only reason he went to college; to form a band. Upon returning to Amherst, Thompson dropped out, as did Santiago. Both of them spent '84-85 working in a factory, and in January 1986, the pair formed a band. They put an advert in the local paper, seeking a bassist who was "into Peter, Paul and Mary and Husker Dü" and "please-no chops". The only person to answer the ad was Kim Deal, a woman from Dayton, Ohio, despite Deal not knowing how to play bass; she didn't even own one at the time. However, Deal met Thompson and Santiago and borrowed her sister Kelley's bass for the rehearsal, and they began jamming Thompson's songs which he had written on his acoustic guitar during his days in the factory. They eventually tried to get Kelley Deal to join on drums, but it didn't work out, and eventually Kim's husband recommended David Lovering for a drummer. Thompson took on the alias of Black Francis around this time, and Pixies began rehearsing together.


== Pixies first show, 1986 ==

The Pixies first show was at the long defunct Cambridge club, Jack's. According to Santiago, the only people who showed up were "family, friends and bosses". The band were also wrongly labelled as "Puxies". The band played some of Thompson's early songs, including Bone Machine, Broken Face and Caribou. This show put the Pixies on the local map, and this allowed them to garner enough reputation to record a mini LP called Come On Pilgrim in 1987, starting the legacy of one of the most influential modern music acts, if not the most influential.

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https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BXPFGKCPYiA]

One of the Pixies earliest shows; no footage of the show at Jack's is known to exist