How many artists have songs written about them as testaments to their sheer level of cool? It’s a small number, but when the Dandy Warhols wrote and recorded “Cool As Kim Deal,” they elevated the Breeders frontperson to that echelon. “I want a girlfriend as cool as Kim Deal,” singer Courtney Taylor-Taylor sings on the Dandy’s track. That’s a tall order, even now, 40 years into Deal’s career.
When Deal came to Boston’s Wilbur Theater last month, she was in good spirits, her smile as wide as it ever looked in photos and video from interviews back in the day. “I used to live here, you know,” she joked with the audience, referencing a bygone era when she played bass in an obscure local band called the Fairies (or something like that; who really remembers?). Also in attendance, Deal told the crowd, is ex-Breeders and Throwing Muses guitarist Tanya Donnelly. It’s sweet that the two are in touch and supportive of each other to this day. The mention of Donnelly’s name got a big cheer from the audience.
Though she’s had a cemented place as an alternative rock icon, “Kim Deal” has never released an album of her own. A true solo album. That changed in November 2024 when she released Nobody Loves You More. It’s a strong debut, but that’s not surprising, considering the Breeders never really stopped being good, even on their more recent releases in the 2010s. Deal has always been a prolific songwriter, a quality that was stifled until she started the Breeders with Donnelly in the late 80s.
Twin sister and Breeders guitarist Kelley is part of the touring band behind Kim, singing background vocals. Nowadays, they look more distinct from each other; in some of that old footage from the early 90s, the identical twins unsurprisingly look like-for-like. At the Wilbur show, Kelley’s hair is longer, plus her glasses help differentiate the sisters.
Deal has a reputation as a perfectionist. You can find this out by reading old articles, or you can just eavesdrop on audience chatter at one of these shows. In my case, I overheard a woman in the pit at the Wilbur explain this to a disinterested security guard standing stage left. It was a full house in the theater, with mostly now middle-aged Gen Xers filling the seats. There’s still a solid millennial presence, as Deal’s influential music has made its way down the generations. She’s also got a few more demands from photographers than most artists; we were instructed ahead of time not to stand directly in front of her; she finds it distracting. We also needed to submit our photos for approval before posting online anywhere. Not unheard of, definitely not ideal, but if it gets me into the show then I’m fine with it.
Deal and her band rifled through the eleven songs of Nobody Loves You More front-to-back. Her voice sounded great, with little apparent evidence that she’s been doing this for the better part of 40 years. It’s a tad rougher around the edges (she was apparently a big smoker back in the day), but it still has that earnest, endearing quality that it always had. The tracks from the new album feel less in-your-face, more thoughtful meditations from a seasoned indie rock vet. It’s not all slamming guitars and rocking drum beats. There are pensive moments, rich orchestral sections (translated live by horns and strings). Another notable on the album is that it features some of the final engineering work of the late Steve Albini, who passed away in May 2024.
After finishing performing the album, Deal comes back onstage for a double encore set, performing some Breeders songs, though not the first ones you’d think of. You probably won’t hear “Cannonball” or “Divine Hammer” on this tour (unless she mixes up the selection of these tracks in other cities), but included were classics like “Safari” and “Do You Love Me Now.” She also threw in some of the solo singles she put out as seven inch singles in 2013 and 2014, like “Beautiful Moon” and “Biker Gone.”
Kim Deal is living proof that if you can approach your old habits with fresh ideas, you can maintain an interesting output through your career as a songwriter.
Check out all of Harry’s photos from the show below.
