Primavera Sound Recap, part 3: Pavement (stream)

(Primavera photos courtesy Shannon McLean) In getting WFMU over to Barcelona for the Primavera Sound broadcasts in 2009 and 2010, we've sort of come to recognize that there are a lot of elements at work in deciding whether or not we get to carry a certain act over the airwaves. As a result, some of the fest's bigger-draw moments (Neil Young, My Bloody Valentine for example) don't always approve broadcast, though not for any one particular reason. There's managers to consult, there's issues of what the mix will sound like from various ends without a designated engineer in the artist's camp having time to relegate to us, etc. etc. Stepping outside of the WFMU 4th Floor Love Room at WFMU into a world-class venue is bound to be a challenge and of course we want to do the best we can with what we have. So it's always a pleasant surprise when we get the nod from parties we secretly hope will notice our request amidst the million other things going on, and even more exciting when it's a great set and a stellar mix. Everything converged perfectly for WFMU in Barcelona with Pavement's May 27th headlining stint on the San Miguel stage. Mark Ibold and Spiral have especially been vocal and swell supporters of what we do, tour manager Dan was an uber-superdude with us when we did the Sonic Youth broadcast in Battery Park during WFMU's 50th Anniversary series, and Billions (Pavement's bookers for this super-ballyhooed reunion world tour) kindly fast-tracked us through the red tape and granted the station the one and only broadcast of a full set by the band for this tour. We even got a WFMU tent visit from the guys after soundcheck. We were grateful.

The oft-used hyperbole of assessing a band's performance as "tight" and "rocking" probably is best left for critiques of, say Rollins Band, not Pavement. Throughout their years of activity from 1989-1999, Pavement's records and shows indeed did 'rock', but their unconventional approach to songcraft, the sideways approach to a melody, guitar solo, or anything related to a song was always really intriguing, especially after moving out of their initial singles/EPs days before their Matador residency and Slanted and Enchanted where a lot of the tunefulness was coyly subverted by the hiss and haze. The total overload of critical hosannas that piled on even when their album advance cassette was floating around in 1992 seemed by nature to make one question how they'd fare longevity-wise on the other side of the mania, especially in the post-Nirvana signing frenzy and a plethora of majors trying to figure ways to get their hands on Pavement and teach them how to 'succeed'. They stayed on their own course: early on there was the unpredictable (and often great) early drummer, the stage shows still feeling their way and it was clear Pavement were in no rush to jump through hoops nor gravitate to what was expected in a traditional band and despite growing recognition. Sure enough they not only grew into a sturdy live rock unit, and the albums that followed continued to serve up backhanded volleys of hooks-a-plenty, non-obvious corner-turns at every opportunity, strange lyrical couplets that lingered in your brainlobes. By 1994, Fall/Swell Maps-like guitar figures started to show strange hues of Peter Green, the Frogs, Sandy Bull and the Everly Brothers, though through a filter that still included a vocabulary of flip-flop solos culled from other heroes' influence (especially David Mitchell of New Zealand's 3Ds, I hear a lot of him in Pavement). Stephen Malkmus' guitar playing especially was assured yet brittle, more detailed, accenting in distortionless dissonance more often, downright inspired by English folk and blues, but still sidesteppingly Pavement-branded. Live, I'd always opted to try to avoid the band on larger stages for this reason; it sometimes bummed me to hear the tapestries of intimate songs like "Grounded" get swallowed up in a concrete stadium at festivals and often lose their subtleties from an attendee's perspective. In 2010, Primavera's big stage found Pavement and their sound to be excellent, the band strident, confident, exhuberant and downright goofy at times. Malkmus played behind his head, with the guitar stretched out like a violin from his chest, being swung along the stage floor like a nine-iron, never once fumbling or losing the traction even during an intricate solo on "Stop Breathing." They barrelled through a set of the hits (none however pre-Slanted), guests came and sang and danced (an especially touching tango between Bob Nastanovich and the singer from Monotonix during "We Dance"), Spiral ended the show in the pit on the floor. I think anyone who was a fan and missed them back in the 90's did not go away disappointed. We've been granted permish to stream this archive for a limited time (no MP3 download, sorry), so enjoy, and thanks to Pavement and Primavera!

Set list: Cut Your Hair / Trigger Cut / Rattled By the Rush / Father To A Sister of Thought / In the Mouth a Desert / Kennel District (w/guest vox Kevin Drew) / Grounded / Silence Kit / Elevate Me Later / Spit on a Stranger / Unfair / Starlings of the Slipstream / Fight This Generation / We Dance / Conduit For Sale! / The Hexx / Here / Stereo / Two States / Range Life.  ENCORE: Gold Soundz / Shady Lane / Stop Breathing

Pavement live WFMU broadcast from Primavera Sound, Barcelona, Spain 5/27/10

Playlist for the Primavera broadcasts (and links to other streams)

Some of the festival's artists gave us MP3s for the Free Music Archive.

Remaining Pavement dates:

07-02 Gdynia, Poland – Open’er Festival
07-04 Roskilde, Denmark – Roskilde Festival
07-06 Nijmegen, Netherlands – Doornroosje
07-08 Liege, Belgium – Les Ardentes Festival
07-18 Chicago, IL – Pitchfork Music Festival
07-31 Montreal, Quebec – Osheaga Festival
08-07 Tokyo, Japan – Summer Sonic
08-08 Osaka, Japan – Summer Sonic
08-12 Oslo, Norway – Oya Festival
08-14 Gothenburg, Sweden – Way Out West Festival
09-03 Troutdale, OR – Edgefield Amphitheater
09-05 Seattle, WA – The Paramount Theatre
09-07 Vancouver, British Columbia – Queen Elizabeth Theatre
09-09 Broomfield, CO – First Bank Center
09-11 Kansas City, MO – Uptown Theater
09-12 St. Paul, MN – Roy Wilkins Auditorium
09-13 Chicago, IL – Millennium Park
09-14 Milwaukee, WI – Pabst Theater
09-16 Columbus, OH – The LC Pavilion
09-17 Philadelphia, PA – Mann Center for the Performing Arts
09-18 Boston, MA – Agganis Arena
09-19 Brooklyn, NY – Williamsburg Waterfront
09-21 New York, NY – Rumsey Playfield
09-22 New York, NY – Rumsey Playfield
09-23 New York, NY – Rumsey Playfield
09-24 New York, NY – Rumsey Playfield
09-26 Atlanta, GA – The Tabernacle
09-28 Austin, TX – Stubb’s Waller Creek Amphitheatre
09-29 Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Bowl (w/Sonic Youth & No Age)