PAVEMENT + BEAK> – ROUNDHOUSE, CHALK FARM, LONDON 25.10.22
This month Pavement returned to play the UK for the first time in twelve years. To say that this news was greeted with a degree of excitement is something of an understatement, as the gigs sold out in nanoseconds. Okay, it might have been a bit slower than that, but not by much. Every night on this tour Pavement play a radically different set, and are accompanied by a different support band. Had I known this initially I would have done my damnedest to at least get tickets for one more show, if not all of them, but I didn’t.
Tonight’s support at the Roundhouse is Beak> who are from Bristol. The band formed by Geoff Barrow from Portishead on drums and vocals, and Billy Fuller, ex of Robert Plant’s Sensational Shape Shifters, on bass and vocals. The band is completed by Will Young (no, not that one) on keyboards and guitar, but not simultaneously. I have seen, and indeed reviewed Beak> a few times now, and they are always an interesting and entertaining proposition. The music remains complex and engrossing. Set opener ‘The Brazilian’ is utterly majestic. The between song banter is as entertaining as ever. Billy Fuller tells us that he got his trainers “from the charity shop for a fiver. They’re from the 80s. I can tell quite a few of you are from the 80s. And the 70s!” Meanwhile Geoff Barrow tells us that “this is like playing Wembley for us!” Yeah right.
Geoff’s vocals are treated with much echo. Billy’s bass parts are more melodic than I remember, and Will Young’s guitar sounds more assertive than hitherto. This band may be becoming even better! Goddamn.
Beak> setlist:
‘The Brazilian’
‘Brean Down’
‘Yatton’
‘Eggdog’
‘The Meader’
‘RSI’
‘Allé Sauvage’
‘Wulfstan II’
When Pavement (aka The Sultans Of Slack, as per their Facebook page) take the stage, the roar from the audience borders on being feral. It’s twenty-three years since I last saw the band, and apart from Stephen Malkmus’ ‘salt-and-pepper’ hair they seem to have barely changed. Mind you, that might be simply an indication of the decline in my eyesight in the last quarter of a century or so! They’re joined by a touring keyboard player, but otherwise everything is as it was before. With the widely differing setlists each night we have no idea what we’re going to hear, which is really quite exciting. This also means that there is no guarantee that we’re even going to hear the most popular songs. ‘Cut Your Hair’ is not played tonight for example.
This brings me to a question that I have asked before regarding older bands: is this a barefaced exercise in nostalgia, and if it is, does it in reality have any truly artistic merit? Is this in fact just a showbiz act extracting as much cash as possible from their greying audience? Pavement’s last new material, in the form of the album ‘Terror Twilight’ with its accompanying EPs and singles came out in 1999. There is no hint of the possibility of any new material, so opening song ‘Major Leagues’ from the ‘Terror Twilight’ album is the nearest Pavement can get to a ‘newie’. Fan favourite ‘Stereo’ from ‘Brighten The Corners’ (1997) is dispatched early as the second song, and then things get a bit more interesting, with airings for ‘Spizzle Trunk’ from the ‘Demolition Plot J-7’ EP (1990) and later, ‘Heckler Spray’, from the ‘Perfect Sound Forever’ EP (1991). The artistic merit I mentioned comes partially from the way the set is put together. Not just there being relative rarities such as the last two songs mentioned, but the way the songs are grouped together in some places. In the middle of the set for example, there are four songs from ‘Wowee Zowee’: ‘Grave Architecture’, ‘Father To A Sister of Thought’, ‘Serpentine Pad’, and ‘Grounded’.
Then of course there is the performance itself. The way the guitars of Stephen Malkmus and Spiral Stairs (known as Scott Kannberg to his family) contrast: Malkmus plays the more traditional lead parts, whilst Spiral Stairs does the louder noisier parts. Then we come to Bob Nastanovich. Indeed, where do we begin with him? He simply won’t stay still! Technically he plays percussion, harmonica, occasional keyboard and sings backing vocals (although he does sing lead on ‘Conduit For Sale’). At times however he’s virtually being a frontman – out at the front of the stage even if he’s only singing a backing vocal. He brings an added air of anarchy to the band. When the main set ends I’m unsure whether Pavement will play an encore, but we get an extra four songs. For the first, ‘Range Life’, they are joined by John Bennett, formerly of The High Llamas.
There is definitely an air of nostalgia about tonight’s gig. However, it’s fresh nostalgia though, as the band still play as they always have. There’s a definite feeling that things could fall apart at any moment, like the false start to ‘Grounded’ when the song starts when Spiral Stage is briefly offstage. The band have an energy and enthusiasm that would shame some younger bands. I won’t beat around the bush – this has been a brilliant gig. The music still seems kind of new, even though some of it is thirty years old. Next time they play though – I’m going to all of the gigs!!
Pavement setlist:
‘Major Leagues’
‘Stereo’
‘Spizzle Trunk’
‘Starlings Of The Slipstream’
‘Fight This Generation’
Shoot The Singer (1 Sick Verse)
‘Embassy Row’
‘Heckler Spray’
‘Trigger Cut’
‘Two States’
‘Grave Architecture’
‘Father To A Sister Of Thought’
‘Serpentine Pad’
‘Grounded’ (with False Start as Spiral Stairs was not on stage)
‘Type Slowly’
‘Here’
‘Gold Soundz’
‘Silence Kid’
‘Kennel District’
‘Heaven Is A Truck’
‘Shady Lane’
(encore)
‘Range Life’ (with guest on guitar)
‘Spit On A Stranger’
‘Conduit For Sale!’
‘Stop Breathin’
