Bluefinger

Catastrophic Theatre Teams With Pixies Legend Black Francis to Create New Rock Opera

2010-11-12T20:00:00-06:00

Bluefinger premieres in %days% days, %hours% hours, and %mins% minutes.

Catastrophic Theatre is proud to announce its biggest project yet: A new musical play to be created in collaboration between Charles Thompson (a.k.a. Black Francis; a.k.a. Frank Black), Jason Nodler and the Catastrophic ensemble, from an idea by Pixies biographer Josh Frank.  Thompson is best known as the primary force behind the legendary and influential alternative rock group Pixies.

Bluefinger, based on the critically acclaimed 2007 Black Francis album of the same name, takes as its subject the life and death of Herman Brood, a Dutch musician and painter who committed suicide in 2001 following a remarkable and tempestuous career. The play will feature songs from the Black Francis record Bluefinger and songs by Brood himself.

Nodler recently completed a fellowship at The MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire where he began early development on the project. The play will premiere in Houston in 2010.

"I've heard it said about The Velvet Underground that while not a lot of people bought their albums, everyone who did started a band. I think this is largely true about the Pixies as well. [It] was the beginning of the end of counterculture." - Gary Smith, Fort Apache, 1997

Charles Thompson is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is best known as the frontman of the influential alternative rock band Pixies, where he performed under the stage name Black Francis. Following the band's breakup in 1993, he embarked on a solo career under the name Frank Black. His vocal style has varied from a screaming, yowling delivery as lead vocalist of the Pixies to a more measured and melodical style in his solo career.

As frontman of the Pixies, his songs (such as "Where Is My Mind?,” “Here Comes Your Man,” and "Debaser") received praise and citations from contemporaries, including Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Nirvana's Kurt Cobain. Cobain once said that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was his attempt at trying to "rip off the Pixies." In 2007, a new album entitled Bluefinger was released under his former stage name of Black Francis.

Thompson currently lives in Eugene, Oregon, and is married to Violet Clark, his second wife, with whom he has three children.