PAVEMENT Offers Playlist of Every Song NOT Played On Their Tour So Far.
With the band making a habit of pulling out deep cuts on their North American reunion dates, this devolving list is set to update as the tour continues
When retroactive indie rock big shots, Pavement reunited back in 2010, there was a slightly complex undertone to the whole thing. The group had disbanded a decade prior with the members scattering in different directions. Bassist, Mark Ibold would eventually join Sonic Youth, alongside Kim Gordon, who he’d previously played with in her project Free Kitten. Stephen Malkmus had already gone on to release several noteworthy studio albums, by then, either with his band The Jicks or as a solo artist. Meanwhile, Scott Kannberg trudged forward with his band Preston School Of Industry, and, later under his pseudonym Spiral Stairs. At the time of the reunion announcement in 2009, the first Spiral Stairs LP had just been released and picked apart by Pitchfork. Depending on who you ask, this resulted in Pavement — and more specifically, Kannberg — nixing the band’s live stream during the Pitchfork Music Festival. That same year, Sonic Youth released The Eternal, the band’s first studio release featuring Ibold as an official full-fledged member, rather than just a touring bassist. As for Malkmus, he is just as prolific in his post-Pavement work and, at that point, had been with the Jicks just as long as Pavement‘s initial run, yet those accomplishments often seemed to be dismissed as some lesser side-project filling time until his “real” band got back together. The world was pounding its fists and demanding another band reunion to appease all of those who either missed the group during its original run, or simply didn’t give a shit the first time around.
When beloved bands split up under circumstances that were murky or less than amicable a reunion can involve more moving parts than fans and media always care to acknowledge. The flip side to that is when they do nothing other than focus on and sensationalize issues that have long since been patched over, have been exaggerated, or that never really existed in the first place. Dinosaur Jr may be somewhat of an outlier in the way that J Mascis simply booted the other members out one by one and kept rolling, until its demise. Since reforming with the original lineup, they’ve consistently been cranking out new material and touring on the regular, as if it never happened. The Pixies, on the other hand, mirror the Pavement reunion in multiple ways, including the initial window of uncertainty about whether or not they had officially broken and members discovering the news at the same time as the public via magazine articles. The legendary statuses of Pavement and the Pixies have similarly grown since their dissolutions, resulting in the bands playing substantially larger venues to much larger crowds than they’d ever been able to yield the first time around. Furthermore, the media has placed expectations on both groups to adhere to some weird preconceived framework that they’ve manufactured around them, often tied to the writer’s own individual nostalgia and/or misunderstanding of who the bands are now, or ever were at all. When I saw the 2004 Pixies reunion tour, something felt off to me and, although I seemed to be alone in my perception, Loud Quiet Loud, the documentary chronicling that tour, pretty much confirmed the turmoil and discomfort surrounding the members that I had picked up on. Ironically, when the band reunited to align with the 20th Anniversary of Doolittle in 2009 and were met with accusations of “CASH GRAB!,” the energy that I witnessed felt so pure, positive, and infectious that the band broke out an impromptu double encore with huge, glowing, and appreciative smiles across their faces. As someone who has now caught shows from both Pavement reunion tours, as well, I’m beginning to recognize a similar pattern and become convinced that, while the initial reunions may appear more exciting on paper, the second reunion tours may really be the ones to see.
Photo by David Fink (via the Pavement Instagram account)
We caught Pavement twice on the 2010 tour, first at Sasquatch Musical Festival and later at the Paramount in Seattle. I thought both of the shows were great with the band delivering extensive 20-plus song setlists packed with all the hits — or as close to “hits” as they have, anyway. There were the unsurprising reviews complaining about a band notorious for their looseness and casual approach to fame not taking things serious enough on stage, but I feel like the real fans who weren’t pretentious jackoff music “journalists,” or the clowns still complaining about the ousting of original drummer Gary Young 30 years after the fact, were overwhelmingly happy with the results. That said, I remember Malkmus pulling back on participating in interviews and promotion, after a certain point. There were also a lot more expectations around the whole thing, along with many people hoping that a reunion tour might lead to something permanent, much like it has with The Pixies and Dinosaur. This time around, the whole thing feels much more relaxed, almost as if they got the hard stuff out of the way and don’t have to overthink it. The repeated delays and rescheduled dates brought on by the pandemic had to play a part in that, as well. When we saw them in Seattle on Saturday, the vibe was lighter and more effortless, almost as if they were genuinely enjoying themselves. It’s not that I believe they felt that they had anything to prove during the first reunion, but I do believe there were people there that felt different, and the fact that they don’t play into that may have resulted in some of those less than favorable reviews. The 2022 audiences have a reduction in critical onlookers; they’re made up of the diehards and longtime fans who are dedicated enough to make it out long after the momentum waned. And since the band is among friends, it’s been a great opportunity for the guys to unpack the deep cuts that crowds like this truly appreciate.
Along with having a live tour and various reissues to promote, the reunited indie rock pioneers have a whole new life and vibrancy breathed back into them, suggesting that they are a fully formed unit moving in unison, rather than just cardboard cutouts going through the motions on stage. Their Instagram account Is hilariously tongue-in-cheek and whoever is manning their social media is crushing it. The new 4xLP Terror Twilight box set is packed with extras, b-sides, alternative takes, and unreleased songs; welcome additions that have been providing these recent reissues with genuine value. The band understands its fanbase, a trait that’s been reflected in their willingness to be more adventurous with the setlists by mixing in the deeper cuts night after night. Songs like “Fame Throwa,” which hadn’t been played since 1994, are getting their chance to shine again. During the encore of the Seattle show, Stephen called an audible to insert the Spiral Stairs-penned “Painted Soldiers” into their set for the first time since 1997. This has become so commonplace that they even have a related meme that they’ve been recycling with slight variations on their IG page. It consists of an image of the elderly Rose character from Titanic accompanied by a phrase like “(Band starts playing __)” across the top, followed by “It’s been 84 years…” at the bottom.
These bust-out tracks have helped this tour remain exciting by keeping fans guessing while letting them know that absolutely anything could be on the table. Earlier today, a new post popped up on the Pavement Instagram account. It featured a picture from the Seattle show (see above), and it was captioned with the following statement:
“We’ve played 49.5 different songs on this tour so far, with more to come but to SOME, maybe that’s not enough. The internet provides a voice to many, despite your life choices. And the internet also supplies niche playlists such as “Unslayed Tracks: all the songs Pavement has yet to play on their 2022 tour” which we’ve been TOLD will be edited as tour continues (TONIGHT IN DENVER!) and I’m sure if anything gets missed, we’ll hear about it.
Oh, and THANK YOU, it’s been a blast so far!”
A nod to the band’s debut EP, Slay Tracks: 1933 -1969, the referenced playlist was created on the Matador Records Spotify account with the description “Every song Pavement has NOT played on their 2022 North American tour so far. You complained and we listened (whether we wanted to or not).” It currently features over 170 tracks. The idea, of course, is that the more of these gems get unearthed as the tour progresses, the shorter that the playlist will become; ideally, until there is nothing left. In the meantime, we’ve embedded the entire thing below. Give it a quick scroll or tear through the entire thing if you feel so inclined. Who knows how long this thing will stick around? Similarly, we have no idea how long Pavement will continue playing together. If you have an opportunity to catch them on this tour, we highly recommend it.