Pavement at the Roundhouse show they’re an act for the ages — review

Speaking in 1999, as his band Pavement prepared to release what would turn out to be their final album, Stephen Malkmus complained that it felt “irrelevant” and “fake” to play old songs at gigs. He named a couple of examples, “Summer Babe” and “Grounded”. “When it’s old songs, it just seems really dated to me,” the band’s singer-guitarist explained. “Maybe in 20 years’ time, with a dwindling bank account, I might reconsider that.”

Twenty-three years later, the rethink has taken place. At the Roundhouse, for the first of four shows, Malkmus was back on stage with his Pavement bandmates playing a set that included “Summer Babe” and “Grounded”. A mostly middle-aged audience was present to celebrate the return of one of the leading bands of 1990s US alt-rock. Gen X-tatic cheers went up when they played fan favourites. The nostalgia was real, not fake. But what was its relevance, other than to the state of Malkmus and co’s bank accounts?

Back in the day, the prospect of Pavement on the reunion circuit in their mid-fifties would have met with dismay. The US alt-rock boom of the 1990s was obsessed with the notion of selling out, even as its biggest names signed with major labels and shilled for MTV coverage.

Pavement never did that. They were not earnest enough to care greatly about selling out, but they also lacked the careerism to actually accomplish it. Their twisty, fuzzy songs, topped by Malkmus’s drawl, took pleasure in not going from A to B. They were held up as epitomes of the slacker, that irony-addled, artfully inactive archetype of 1990s non-rebellion: “too lazy to rock”, in the sniggering judgment of Beavis and Butt-Head.

That certainly was not the case at the Roundhouse. Pavement used to have a reputation as a shambolic live act, but here they were engaged and energetic. Malkmus threw guitar-slinger’s shapes as he played solos and riffs, kicking the air during opening track “Fin” and strafing the audience like a member of The Clash during a punk-rock rendition of “Unfair”. For “Grounded”, he performed the classic axe hero’s trick of playing the instrument behind his head. There was more than a hint of irony to the pose — but also a greater helping of skill.

He was joined by fellow guitarist Scott Kannberg on the other side of the stage, the Californian childhood friend with whom he started the band. Arranged between them were bassist Mark Ibold, drummer Steve West and percussionist Bob Nastanovich. Touring member Rebecca Cole played keyboards.

It is not their first reactivation, having got back together for an ambivalently brief tour in 2010. Whatever misgivings existed then are absent now. Playing a setlist that has been varying from concert to concert, they were a tight unit, bringing to life music that went far beyond alt-rock’s loud-quiet-loud template.

Jangling guitars evoked the memory of 1960s pop while solos made splashy raids on 1970s rock. There were “sha la la” choruses like a doo-wop group and a psychedelic breakdown like an old-school jam band. Nastanovich was an unhinged vocal foil to the urbane Malkmus, barking surreal phrases like an indie-rock Flavor Flav. Amid the thickly distorted riffs and tricksy song structures, the message of their reunion rang out clearly: Pavement are an act for the ages, not just their era.

★★★★☆

bandsintown.com