By Zack Gill
Staff Writer
Alternative rock group Pavement played the Hollywood Bowl on September 30 as one of the final dates for their reunion world tour. Supported by Sonic Youth and No Age, Pavement put on an enthusiastic show full of the impressive but fun tracks that gained them popularity in the ‘90s.
With a bill of possibly the three loudest groups to ever play the Hollywood Bowl, the audience was guaranteed an interesting evening. No Age’s gritty guitar was entrancing, Sonic Youth (now a four piece after departure of bassist Mark Ibold) was stronger than ever, and Pavement’s seventy-minute set was a Smörgåsbord of energy and unique guitar-work.
Punk group No Age was the loudest group of the night. Their set included tracks from new album “Everything In Between” and was abrasive while entertaining.
Sonic Youth’s vast discography includes 1988’s “Daydream Nation,” often considered to be one of the greatest rock albums of all time; accordingly, the band stuck mostly to this older material. Their surprisingly soft set went against their reputation for deafening volume, although multi-instrumentalist Kim Gordon did drag her bass on the ground to create brash and atonal noise. Sonic Youth song “Death Valley ’69,” about the Manson family murders, built from a slow, moody intro to a sinister chorus and provided the most intense moment of the evening.
Pavement, whose fuzzy rock songs and albums from well-known alternative labels like Drag City and Matador, is considered to be among the forefathers of indie. The five-piece band has a reputation for sloppy, uninspired live shows. In the ‘90s, their sets often devolved into drug-fueled, jam session vomit. For years, they didn’t even physically face the audience during shows. Now, eleven years after their break-up, they’ve returned with a world tour and respect for their fans.
Pavement’s animated eighteen-song set included most, if not all, of their best songs, including “Cut Your Hair,” their only song to get extensive airplay on the radio and MTV. Fan-favorite “Summer Babe” was perhaps the best performance of the entire evening, with its fizzing guitar and cathartic conclusion. Nevertheless, the set seemed a bit rushed, or perhaps simply too short, due to the Hollywood Bowl’s strictly enforced 11 p.m. curfew.
The star of the entire night was Pavement’s effortlessly cool (and often funny) singer-guitarist Stephen Malkmus. Ten years of touring and solo material have turned him into a great live guitarist. He exhibited his skill with an improvised country jam during classic song “Range Life.”
The only misfire in Pavement’s set was “Spit On a Stranger,” from Pavement’s final album, “Terror Twilight.” Malkmus joked before the song that he was going to “kill some vibes” with it, and he turned out to be correct. The song lacked the fun of Pavement at their best and the intensity of their earlier slow material. In a night of challenging abrasion and pure exhilaration, the song just didn’t fit the mood.
For a measly forty dollars, music fans were treated to one the loudest, most exciting shows to ever grace the Hollywood Bowl. No Age and Sonic Youth capably supplemented Pavement’s incredible set. After a few more dates in South America, Pavement’s reunion tour (and most likely, their reunion) will come to an end. Without them, the world will go back to the way it was after Pavement’s first demise—a little less fun.
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