Sometimes you wait forever for some long-hoped for event to happen, and then when it happens you wish it hadn’t because of the unbearable bubble-burst and ballyhoo-bust.\u00a0 Well I’ve been waiting for 18 years to see this band and hear these songs live, and Pavement didn’t in the least disappoint, but instead delivered on decades of unrealistically heightened expectation and anticipation.\u00a0 And they did it with a generous 31 songs.\u00a0 Huge.<\/p>\n
We arrived at 9pm just in time to catch the last few songs of surprising opening band, Middle East, from Australia.\u00a0\u00a0 They finished with a beautiful, 6-part harmonized, trumpet- and banjo- augmented, Arcade-Fire-esque song, and are worthy of keeping track of based solely on this finale.\u00a0 Highly recommended.<\/p>\n
After a short break, Malkmus, Spiral Stairs, Bob and band sauntered onto the stage above which was a halo\/helix of country-fair lights.\u00a0 And off they went.\u00a0 From Silence Kit<\/em> all the way through to Hexx<\/em> and two long ensuing encores ending in Conduit<\/em>, the band exceeded my expectations.\u00a0 The\u00a0 songs early in the set were slightly ragged and slapdash, but the band just kept gathering momentum, energy and tightening as the set went on.\u00a0 Too dang good.<\/p>\n About 7-8 songs in I noticed that my face was aching from the involuntary smile pasted on wide.<\/p>\n Malkmus started off feigning some disinterest and somnambulism, but every time he stepped to the mike any ennui fell aside and he sang the songs in earnest, like they deserved.\u00a0 Scott was all smiles and came to the mike with a slightly different approach that smacked of wisdom and growth, but lacked some of the prior verve and upper register.\u00a0 Bob was perfectly over the top, whether as part of the dual-drum attack, or with his brandished cowbell, harmonica, zither, or when accompanying with sating screams and hardy-har-harmony vocals.\u00a0 And on Unfair, <\/em>Bob delivered, hands down, the best Johnny Rotten imitation seen in the new millennium (including, sadly, Mr. Lydon’s recent PIL performances, as goulishly compelling as they may be).\u00a0 Bob he ranted on Unfair <\/em>of the siphoning by the south (as the south sang along).\u00a0\u00a0 “Shake your nachos like you just don’t care!!”\u00a0 Indeed.\u00a0 And underneath and behind, the Steve and Mark rhythm section swung well in support.<\/p>\n While we’ve enjoyed much of the post-Pavement Malkmus (with and without Jicks) ouevre and shows, the later, jammy, blues-ish offerings have lacked the original spark.\u00a0 And what tonight reaffirmed is that Malkmus has always been primarily about the songs (well and that gifted guitar madness) and lyrics. \u00a0 Malkmus tosses off alternatingly poignant and hilarious lines that embed in your head for decades.\u00a0 The pathos of “caught my father crying,” “epileptic surgeons with their eyes x’ed out attend to the torn up kid,” “when they rise up in the falling rain,” “i was dressed for success but success it never comes,”and “starlings in the slipstream” are leavened by the bathos of “a redder shade of neck on a whiter shade of trash” and “darlings on the split-screen.”\u00a0 And the melodies alternatingly sing you and jar you, but are always inventive and often imbued with a math-jazz-blues motif.<\/p>\n But you probably knew that already.<\/p>\n We end with a plea:\u00a0 Dear Stephen, we hope you (and each Pavement member) find anew the interest and affection for more of the Pavement-esque songsmithing and delivery, and leave the jamming to Phish and the other phops.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Many of the\u00a0 song highlights of the evening were as expected, but I was reminded of the weight and worth of Hexx, Stop Breathin’ and Here.<\/em><\/p>\n Can’t wait for the Greek in Berkeley on June 25th.<\/p>\n Setlist:<\/p>\n Silence Kit<\/p>\n Ell Ess Two<\/p>\n Give It A Day<\/p>\n Frontwards<\/p>\n No Life Singed Her<\/p>\n Father to a Sister of Doubt<\/p>\n Rattled by the Rush<\/p>\n Kennel District<\/p>\n In The Mouth A Desert<\/p>\n Shady Lane<\/p>\n Unfair<\/p>\n Spit On A Stranger<\/p>\n Grounded<\/p>\n Two States<\/p>\n Range Life<\/p>\n Perfume V<\/p>\n Gold Soundz<\/p>\n Fight This Generation<\/p>\n Summer Babe<\/p>\n Cut Your Hair<\/p>\n Hexx<\/p>\n Encore 1:<\/p>\n Date With Ikea<\/p>\n Trigger Cut<\/p>\n Stop Breathin’<\/p>\n Starlings in the Slipstream<\/p>\n Box Elder<\/p>\n Here<\/p>\n Encore 2:<\/p>\n Stereo<\/p>\n Zurich Is Stained<\/p>\n Loretta’s Scars<\/p>\n Conduit<\/p>\n