“Thanks for having us here tonight, were any of you guys at our first show at the Middle East club?” inquires Bob Nastanovich, Pavement’s very own Ryan Noss to the audience. “They were all there man, all of them” replies Stephen Malkmus, the band’s genius in residence. The lads from Pavement are clearly not the bashful arena rockers that Green Day are or the angst-punk of Nirvana, the group is just a group of well--- regular guys… Nonetheless, Pavement are one of the—if not the-- most accomplished and acclaimed indie/lo-fi group of the last two decades. The gang of five started off with the opener from 1994’s “Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain”, the rocker “Silence Kit”, which took the crowd to an other-worldly place without letting them return for a solid two hours. Next up was an obscure track from the band’s fourth album called “Starling of the Slipstream” and even though unknown to most, the audience still knew all of the words. The set continued on with a triplet of fan-favorites from debut “Slanted and Enchanted” and even included the second drummer-sung “Two States”. Following that was a lively rendition of one of Pavement’s minor hits, entitled “Stereo”--- another massive sing-along! It wasn’t long after that the boys took the tempo down a notch for Crooked Rain’s “Stop Breathing” and then turned up the nostalgia with “Gold Soundz”, also from the 1994 cult-classic. The dream setlist continued with an exquisitely ironic version “The Conduit” and a fantastic version of “Grounded” (awesome light show included), the first of many tracks from 1995’s “Wowee Zowee”. The climax of the show at that particular moment in time seemed to be “Summer Babe”, not only one of the band’s greatest, but one of the greatest songs of the 90s, a lo-fi song turned into a choice slice of arena-alt-rock very easily—and precisely. After a few more major bursts of energy, the band once again turned the guitar down from eleven to ten for a wonderful acoustic version of “We Dance”, one of my favorite songs by the group. Succeeding that was a funked out rendition of 95’s “Brinx Job” and a beautiful “Fin”. Pavement’s big hit “Cut Your Hair” ended the main set. At this point I snuck down to the floor in hopes of getting the setlist after the show. Right as I got to the floor, the first encore started as if they knew I had just gotten into position. The first to songs of the encore, “Kennel District” and “Rattled by the Rush” were very strong and choice cuts of pure arena noise. Ending the first encore was the controversial “Range Life”, whose famous line was “Out on tour, with the Smashing Pumpkins, natured kids, but they ain’t got no function, I don’t understand, what they mean, and I could really give a f*ck” which obviously upset the Smashing Pumpkin’s leader, Billy Corgan. After over a decade of controversy, the line at the concert was sung as “Out on tour, with the Smashing Pumpkins, natured kids, and I love their function, I understand what they mean, and I really give a f*ck”, all in the good-natured humor of singer Stephen Malkmus. After the first encore many people left, thinking the show was over but little did they know, Pavement still had quite a bit in store. The guys turned it down for “How I Met Your Mother” ballad “Spit on a Stranger” and slightly quickened the past for “Shoot the Singer”. Pavement ended the show at the Agganis arena in Boston, MA on Saturday, September 18th with the band’s magnum opus “Here”. There was nay a dry eye in the house as everyone was singing along to Malkmus’ best tune, and not being able to believe that “everything’s ending here”, but we trusted the guys on that one, and we always will. What a band, whatta band.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)