Indie-rock favorites Pavement bring reunion tour to the Masonic for 3 nights
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Reunited indie-rock heroes Pavement come to the Masonic in San Francisco for three nights this week, playing songs from throughout their storied career.
Co-founded by Stephen Malkmus and Scott "Spiral Stairs" Kannberg, Pavement put the Central Valley city of Stockton on the map in the late '80s when the pair started recording music together under the moniker in 1989. A series of tuneful, lo-fi noise pop EPs established the group as a unique new voice the underground rock scene, earning the band critical praise and comparisons to like-minded post-punk mavericks including Mark E. Smith's group The Fall, R.E.M and Sonic Youth.
By the time Pavement recorded it's proper debut album Slanted and Enchanted, the band had filled out to include drummer Gary Young (who helped record and produce the early EPs at his home studio), bassist Mark Ibold and percussionist Bob Nastanovich. Matador Records released the album in 1992 was quickly hailed as a modern rock classic with its mix of fractured arrangements, indelible melodies and Malkmus' well-crafted lyrics.
Pavement would rise to become one of the most beloved bands of the decade, producing a string of celebrated efforts including the equally adored, more accessible 1994 follow-up Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain, the following year's sprawling experiment Wowee Zowie, and the focused indie-rock tunefulness of Brighten the Corners.
The band dissolved following their swan song recording Terror Twilight in 1999, but Malkmus and Kannberg has already ventured into solo work and other projects prior to the official split in 2000. Kannberg unveiled his SF band Preston School of Industry, while Malkmus had played with songwriter David Berman's band the Silver Jews in the '90s before launching his solo career. He formed his group, the Jicks, drawing from players found in his new home of Portland, OR.
Though Matador Records insisted Malkmus release his eponymous solo debut under his own name instead of the new band's moniker, the 2001 effort earned solid reviews that hailed the effort as a return to form for the songwriter. Their second album Pig Lib embraced a looser, more band-oriented vibe that scored even higher praise from critics.
Malkmus scaled back his activity after the birth of his two daughters during the later part of the 2000s, but continued to reap critical acclaim with the band's releases including Real Emotional Trash in 2008 (the first to feature Quasi and Sleater-Kinney drummer Janet Weiss) and Mirror Traffic three years later. Pavement for a celebrated tour in 2010 to promote the greatest hits compilation Quarantine the Past: The Best of Pavement that included two concerts with guest appearances from the long departed Young. Malkmus and Kannberg also performed a number of Pavement songs together with the Jicks in 2016 during two shows at the Chapel in San Francisco celebrating Spiral Stairs' 50th birthday (Young also joined those festivities on the second of the two nights).
Malkmus and Kannberg have both maintained a steady output of new recordings since then, a new Pavement reunion to mark the band's 30th anniversary was announced in 2019 with its first scheduled appearances at the 2020 editions of the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona and Porto. Those performances were postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic for two years before the band finally was able to make a triumphant return to the festival stage last June. The band's label Matador Records is also celebrating the band with a special 30th anniversary vinyl and cassette reissue of its landmark Slanted and Enchanted album and a deluxe expanded reissue of Terror Twilight as well as well as a new version of the long out-of-print Spit on a Stranger EP and Matador's first pressing of Westing (By Musket And Sextant), the compilation of Pavement's early work from 1989-1993.
The original line-up of the band -- minus drummer Young and plus keyboard player Rebecca Cole (ex-The Minders and Wild Flag) -- brings the North American leg of its reunion tour to the Masonic for three nights starting Monday. The band will be joined on Monday and Tuesday by prolific Bay Area songwriter Kelley Stoltz. A talented musician who has been been setting the bar high for bedroom studio producers for over two decades, Stoltz and his all-star band of local luminaries play songs from his latest effort, The Stylist, as well as his acclaimed second album Antique Glow that got the deluxe reissue treatment by Jack White's Third Man Records imprint last year. Experimental NYC dance-rock outfit Guerilla Toss opens the show on Wednesday.
Pavement
Monday-Wednesday, Sept. 12-14, 8 p.m. $45-$125
The Masonic
