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I’ll be completely honest. I pretty much ignored and dismissed PAVEMENT until the recent compilation Quarantine the Past came out. Eager to hear what I’d been missing and to give them a chance since everyone else seems to love them, hearing the compilation finally made me “get” them and understand their impact upon lots of indie rock from their early to mid ’90s heyday up to the present day.
Thus, I was actually really looking forward to this even though we mainly bought tickets because my wife has been a big fan of theirs since the early ’90s and saw them on numerous occasions throughout their initial run. In any case, they didn’t disappoint. They mostly stuck to the “hits”, both the actual modern rock radio and MTV hits like “Cut Your Hair” and “Stereo” as well as fan favorite like the amazing “Gold Soundz,” “Range Life,” “Shady Lane,” “Spit on a Stranger” and “Here” (the closing song of the night and my favorite song in their catalog). However, there was a special emphasis on the 1st album Slanted and Enchanted as deep album tracks like “Conduit for Sale” (which quotes THE FALL‘s “New Face in Hell”), the also Fall-like “Two States” and “In the Mouth a Desert” were also performed alongside the super early “Box Elder” (from Slay Tracks), “Trigger Cut” (again from Slanted and Enchanted) and even “Fight This Generation” from the much-maligned Wowee Zowee.
According to my wife, they were tighter than they ever were in the ’90s though for her, nothing can replace the memory of seeing them at the Academy in 1994 and standing all the way up front. For myself, having nothing to compare them to, I was left satisfied, though of course wondering what it would’ve been like to have seen them in the ’90s and in a smaller place.
Opener KURT VILE, backed by his band THE VIOLATORS, played a loud and energetic set that seemed to focus on his loud, scuzzy, psychedelic, almost blooz-rock side, but the muddy sound and the fact that were sitting far away (though still in the orchestra) meant that like with many openers at big venues like this, his impact wasn’t as strong as it could’ve been. The whole time I was wishing that we were watching him in a small club, though it was still enjoyable.
