Pavement played in Austin 9 days ago. The simple fact of those words still has mind reeling. Something you wait for years to happen in your life, seeing one of the greatest bands of all time (not to mention my favorite band of all time), in front of you, with all the 2000+ people around you singing along to the same potent indie rock songs, some unknown piece of your brain that process pure joy started working for the 1 and 45 minutes they were on stage.
Austin’s own Woven Bones that the strange honor of opening for Pavement. I for one was happy for the band, not only as a fan, but also in the sense that they got to play to a big crowd while supporting a band that more then likely had a huge influence on them. However, their was the factor that everyone, including the band, knew they were there to simply to chew up time between their set and Pavement’s. Not to mention the band seemed very out of place playing on the massive stage at Stubb’s, while they are much better suited for a small, poor light club instead. Still, Woven Bones knew all this anyway and blasted through their set of tart lo-fi pop tunes with style and grace.
Then, after the life time wait of 30 minutes between sets, Pavement finally took the stage. Now, for anyone who says that reunions are terrible, the bands just playing for the paycheck, Pavement's set proved just how wrong these people can be. The band was playing as great, and entertainingly sloppy as they were 15 years ago. What could possibly picked as a highlight? Was it hearing "Silence Kid" follow into the distortion chords of "Frontwards", then the jangle contained in "Box Elder"as the first three songs? Seeing the beauty of "Grounded" and stark sorrow of "Fin" captured spot on with lights and some of the best indie rock soloing ever? The way Bob Natastanovich could still be so exiting after all these years from jumping and chanting in the crowd, screaming the chorus of "Conduit for Sale", and playing the coolest slide whistle on the the most jam band induced take of "Fight This Generation"? It was all these things, and it's not even close to capturing the how monumental the show was. Yes, there were some sound problems, but the band just worked with them and brought nostalgic lo-fi to the show. It was captured on their faces, the same grin and look when they caught each other's eyes too. It was the "Holy fuck, I can't believe this is happening!" thought. And as Malkmus was yelling the giddy screams that end one of Pavement's greatest songs "AT&T", and that night's set, it was the thought that everyone else had too.
Woven Bones
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