E-Mail This Article to a Friend Homecoming The Pixies finally return to Massachusetts, plus 'Policing Iraq' and more

Finally

After months of speculation, behind-the-scenes scheming, and at least one false start, the Pixies have confirmed their first Massachusetts concerts in more than 13 years: November 30 at the Mullins Center at UMass-Amherst, and December 1 at Tsongas Arena in Lowell. Tickets to both shows are $35, and they go on sale Saturday at 10 a.m. through Ticketmaster. This represents a slight change from what we reported back in July, when the Pixies’ official itinerary briefly listed a December 1 date at the Mullins Center. The Tsongas date leaked out two weeks ago when New Zealand garage punks the Datsuns mistakenly sent an e-mail to a few journalists announcing their opening slot on the gig. Rumors have persisted throughout the summer that the Tsongas show is merely the beginning and that the Pixies are planning a series of club dates in Worcester and Boston running up through Christmas. But such plans remain completely unconfirmed, and we, at least, are setting our speed dial as we speak. Call (617) 931-2000.

Talk talk

In an age of 24-hour news cycles and on-line blogmania, the notion of a good old-fashioned public lecture series can seem quaint. But the nation’s oldest such series, the Ford Hall Forum, never fails to be relevant — in part because it has a superb sense of timing. This fall’s schedule, which was announced last week, brings a series of experts to town for potentially newsmaking panel discussions and monologues. It kicks off on September 29 with Jerry Burke, a former state-police officer and civilian adviser in Iraq, delivering a first-hand account of "Policing Iraq" at Northeastern University’s Raytheon Theater. In an October 25 program at Faneuil Hall sponsored by the Phoenix, the New Yorker’s Seymour Hersh, whose remarkable prose has chronicled the behind-the-scenes drama in the American intelligence community, briefs the electorate on the "Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib." And the aftermath of the presidential election will be dissected on November 3 at Faneuil Hall by congressman Barney Frank and former congressman (and current ’RKO drive-timer) Peter Blute. Also look for discussions of "Hip Hop Politics" (October 19 at Old South Meeting House), a primer on emerging infectious-disease scares titled "Disease du Jour: What Might Be Next?" (November 16 at the Waltham Woods Medical Center), and ABC/NPR commentator Cokie Roberts tracing the founding fathers back to their "Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation" (November 29 at Old South Meeting House). For information, call (617) 373-5800.

Eye of Le Tigre

Remember when nobody thought Kathleen Hanna could follow up Bikini Kill? Remember when everyone thought it was really weird for her to put out a bedroom-electronica record as Julie Ruin? Remember the first time you heard "My Metrocard," began involuntarily shaking your hips, and realized she’d changed the whole damn game? We’re still trying to wrap our heads around the idea that Le Tigre are signed to Universal and that their old label, Mr. Lady, is in mothballs. Yesterday we were steeling ourselves for disappointment; today we’re wondering whether they’ll be the greatest agit-pop group of all time. We’re flip-floppy like that. Bad signs include the white-label 12-inch protest song the band issued last month, just in time for the RNC — it wasn’t very convincing, and you couldn’t dance to it. Good signs include the overhaul of their back catalogue, which is being reissued in toto on their own Le Tigre Records. The major-label debut, This Island (Strummer/Island/Def Jam/Universal, etc.) drops October 19, and on the 23rd the trio play Avalon, 15 Lansdowne Street in Boston, with Gravy Train!!!! (the Gossip of dirty-South hip hop) and Cannonball Jane. Tickets go on sale today (September 9) at 10 a.m.; call (617) 931-2000.

Cat flash fever

We’ll be honest: some of us weren’t too thrilled with the last PJ Harvey album. In fact, some of us thought it kinda sucked. We’d have been psyched if, as advertised, Uh Huh Her had been a return to the scathing rat-shit grunge of Rid of Me. Alack, all we hear is static. Seeing as it’s her first dud in more than a decade, we’re giving her a big golden pass — and probably would even if she hadn’t stolen Karen O’s haircut and stopped wearing panties. Mainly because we’ve never seen her perform live without being moved to crocodile tears. But the next one better be at least as good as Is This Desire? or we’re switching our allegiance to someone who does a better vintage-PJ impersonation, like the Kills or something. That’ll be us trying to look up her skirt when PJ plays Avalon, 15 Lansdowne Street in Boston, on October 9. Tickets go on sale Friday at 10 a.m.; call (617) 931-2000.