It'd been a while since this band had been on the road, and looking around the room, I guessed most of the audience saw them on the the last tour. What was less certain was if they'd seen the band in a venue as ideal as the Akropolis. Whether by design, indifference or dumb luck, there was a sense of Pavement having come full circle from the small clubs to that Lollapalooza gig and back. This club gave us a chance to see them in the kind of place where their music works best.
The boys robot-walked onto the stage and once the instruments were slung in place, they launched into "In the Mouth a Desert". Given the title of their greatest hits package, I thought they might've opened with "Gold Soundz". They played that next. These two songs pretty much marked the tone of the evening as they drew mostly from these two first albums with a few earlier and later tracks.
The years have done nothing to blunt Malkmus' brattish behaviour. Throughout the show he pretended to box, draped his guitar strap over his head, let it slide down his towering frame or threatened to smash it Pete Townsend style. Nastanovich, on the other hand, seemed genuinely pleased to be behind the second drum kit. At one point he even had his arms stretched out wide with a grin to match. And his scream was still put to good use in "Debris Slide". Spiral Stairs indulged in some cock-rockery and straddled the gap between the stage and crowd barrier. Ibold retained that slightly bewildered grin and West proved once again what a formidible drummer he is.
But it was mostly the shambolic affair we have come to love and miss from this band. They screwed up the openings to 'We Dance' and 'Here'. Malkmus seemed to forget the words to a few songs - though maybe the crowd was just shouting along too loudly. At any rate, he never looked like he was going to drop the slight discomfort he showed being up there.
So it was a surprise when they came back for two encores. The final song was a particularly rousing version of "Stop Breathing" or as rousing as these guys can get. Malkmus stood up on top of West's bass drum, Spiral Stairs disappeared into the gap between the stage and the barrier and the band teased us with a prolonged instrumental close - not jammy, not precise - just solid Pavement. At some point we knew it had to end. When the lights came on the crowd seemed to be in agreement. It was worth the wait. Hopefully, it won't be the last time.
