Slanting, but enchanting… Pavement rocks Norway
Indie slackers hit the road again after decade-plus hiatus
It’s been 11 years since Pavement imploded after a final, miserable gig at the Brixton Academy in London. Even at their peak, Pavement were mercurial. The band would break your heart delivering a show so sublime, so perfect you would swear never see them live again because it couldn’t possibly get any better. The next time? They would grind the shards of your heart underfoot with a gig so disastrous, so sour and bad tempered that – once again – you would vow never to see them again. Last week at Oslo’s annual Øya Festival, more than 6000 ageing slackers clutched their pints, breath caught in their throats, collectively willing Pavement to rise above every bum note they ever played and repay their battered faith.
Slacker-in-chief Stephen Malkmus ambled on to the main stage. He cast a wry eye over the crowd and grinned as he muttered: Hello, we’re Pavement. We’re from the 90s.
And as the opening bars from Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain’s Silence Kit unfurl, the memory of past disasters vanished. They follow it up with In The Mouth A Desert and Rattle By The Rush. The 11-year wait was worth it. There were no self-indulgent improvisations, no attitude, just five dudes having a blast, playing some of the choicest cuts from the band’s back catalogue.
The tight, cleverly thought-out set – mostly culled from 1994′s Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain – was a near perfect mix of raucous and shy guitar picking, wry indy intelligence and self-deprecation. And while the set was still raw and unpredictable enough in parts, it seems that the band has spent the past 11 years practicing their licks.
There was new polish and more body to crowd-pleasers Gold Soundz and Stereo, Summer Babe and Unfair. Range Life and Shady Lane have more weight than before. Grounded shimmered across the crowd, atonally ephemeral and achingly beautiful.
The set was by no means perfect – Terror Twilight and Slanted & Enchanted got the barest of nods for a start – but Pavement’s new, older and wiser imperfection is glorious.
SET LIST: Silence Kit / In The Mouth A Desert / Rattled By The Rush / Gold Soundz / Fin / Summer Babe / Stereo / Grounded / Perfume-V / Spit On A Stranger / Ell Ess Two / Shady Lane / Unfair / Range Life / Stop Breathin’ / Kennel District / Cut Your Hair
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