Second chapter continues for the Pixies

May 12, 2015 at 12:05a.m.

The Pixies are hard to figure.

An influential player in laying the groundwork for what would eventually become the early ’90s alternative music explosion, the band broke up just as Kurt Cobain’s grunge was exploding. Then seemingly out of nowhere 11 years later, the group reunited touring its four-album catalog – “Surfa Rosa,” “Doolittle,” “Bossa Nova” and “Trompe Le Monde” – to sold-out crowds of Gen Xers.

Whereas some artists spend years doing farewell tours, the Pixies did something, well, only the Pixies could do. After getting back together, the act spent the next decade on a reunion tour playing its tried-and- true indie material to audiences seeking authenticity over glitz without a hint of new songs.

Finally the wait for the band’s fifth studio album came last year with the release of “Indie Cindy,” which features a trippy vibe and frenetic moments that fits squarely into the band’s venerable catalog.

“When we got together and reunited in 2004, we were just going on our laurels,” said Pixies drummer David Lovering, calling from his Santa Barbara, Calif. home. “We were very fortunate to keep doing shows – and doing good shows – and just enjoying ourselves.

“At the seven-year mark, 2011, it was kind of a kick in the pants because we realized, ‘Wow we’ve been on this reunion tour longer than we were initially a band.’ That was kind of surreal.”

Something else that was surreal was while the Pixies were recording what would become “Indie Cindy,” original bassist Kim Deal left the band. Lovering said the remaining members – Black Francis (singer) and Joey Santiago (guitarist) – were in shock.

“It was a pretty heavy time that lasted a whole day of deep thought,” Lovering said. “Then the three of us banded together to just continue on and forge ahead with the record. And now we’re with Paz Lenchantin, who is absolutely fantastic playing bass. I don’t even think of the past of what it was.

“Just right now we’re all enjoying it, and we’re very fortunate as a band that it’s just working out wonderfully.”

While the Pixies return to Northeast Ohio to headline a Sunday show at the Masonic Auditorium in Cleveland, the outfit has also been pegged to open a handful of shows this spring for Robert Plant.

It turns out the connection to the erstwhile Led Zeppelin frontman took place last year when on a U.K. plane ride Lovering struck up a conversation about soccer with a gentleman wearing cool cowboy boots sitting a few seats over. Eventually he figured out the soccer fan was indeed Plant, who it turned out knew all about the Pixies.

“He was such a nice guy,” Lovering said. “He actually knew of The Pixies. He said, ‘Oh, Boston’s finest.’ I could have dropped to the floor right then. It was so cool.”

A month later the offer came in for The Pixies, which haven’t been a supporting act since opening for U2 in 1992, to tour with Plant. The pairing fits squarely into The Pixies being hard to figure out. When the outfit started in the mid-‘80s, the underground band could have never dreamed about touring a decade to sold-out audiences playing old tunes, let alone opening for Plant.

It seems likely what’s next for the Pixies is perhaps an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

“I don’t think anything of The Pixies,” Lovering said. “I play in the band, so I take a different view. It’s hard for me to realize or hear how we’re so influential. But in the last 10 years I’ve noticed a sea of young kids who weren’t born when our last record was out. I’m kind of getting it, the impact. So it would be something to be in the Rock Hall.”

If that call ever does come, perhaps an apropos inductor would be Plant.

“Oh, man, that would be crazy,” Lovering laughed.