Pixies Perform ‘Night The Zombies Came’ Single ‘Motorroller’ on Kimmel

The Pixies performed “Motorroller,” a single from their 2024 album The Night The Zombies Came, on Wednesday’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live.

The venerated band appeared on a hazy set illuminated in greens and blues as singer Charles Thompson a.k.a. Black Francis and Emma Richardson — who joined the band in 2024 — crooned the grungy, guitar heavy tune. 

The group’s appearance on Kimmel coincided with the beginning of their 2025 U.S. album tour, which began earlier this week in Las Vegas and will traverse cities throughout the United States and Canada through September. 

As Thompson previously told Rolling Stone, the album tour is a new chapter for the band, which was originally founded in 1986. “It seemed very laborious,” Thompson said last July. “I was almost like, ‘Why did I suggest doing this tour?’ I had to learn all these songs I’d never played live before. It just felt like it would feel tedious or like homework. But we did it and it wasn’t as hard as we thought it was going to be. It was actually delightful since because the audience was there to hear that stuff.”

The Night The Zombies Came’s tour is the band’s first with Richardson as a bassist and vocalist. The former Band of Skulls bassist joined the Pixies last year after bassist and backing vocalist Paz Lenchantin split from the group following 10 years and three albums together. 

“There was a lot of pressure to do well and not mess up,” Richardson told Rolling Stone last year. “But then it was just a big thrill to be able to be a part of it, and to play those songs live.”

As seen on Kimmel — several months down the line — things seem to be gelling quite well.