Hey everyone,

how’s it going? Thanks so much again to all of the people who threw in money for my 50th birthday present back in the old times, obviously the original plan was for me and the wonderful Shelly to go and watch Pavement at Coachella in Spain and Portugal in mid-2020 but our good mate COVID knocked that on the head, so instead I’ve headed over to the US of A to catch the final handful of shows of Pavement’s triumphant sold-out American run of their delayed reunion. Sadly this time Shelly couldn’t make it because of work obligations, so once again I’m joined by my ever-intrepid mate Rossy who’s already traipsed through the UK and Europe following Pavement with me back in 2010 as well as coming over to the States in 2016 for Spiral’s 50th celebrations (and a swag of other fine gigs).

So for all those who made this trip possible (and any other freeloaders reading this, only joking it’s never too late to chip in), here’s a very abridged nutshell documentation of our US adventures to say thanks for making it happen (and to put your mind at ease that this wasn’t indeed all some incredibly-elaborate ruse).

BRISBANE – LA

We flew over on a jet plane, it was really cool. Nothing much to report, watched the Bob’s Burgers Movie and the Elvis flick and enjoyed them both, and got through one of two episodes of the HBO George Carlin documentary which I was really getting into and seriously hope is still there on the way back.

LA – ATLANTA

Spend a layover night in LA at hotel right near airport, very excited and arguably drink way too much given early flight we have to catch the next day to take us into the Deep South. It’s all good though and we get up in time and make it through the 5 1/2 hour flight to the insanely-massive Atlanta airport, where we jump on a train which takes us downtown to the historic The American Hotel, the incredibly patriotic retro 60s hotel where we are staying and which comes complete with beautiful Art Deco decor and even a Cold War-themed bar. A quick Wiki search shows that it was at the epicentre of the Civil Rights movement in the ’60s and Atlanta’s first integrated hotel, and that over the years has enjoyed an array of dignitaries as guests including Martin Luther King Jr, Elvis Presley, Jimmy Carter and even the great James Brown (although presumably none of them stayed in our room, which was fine but not really of the quality usually enjoyed by visiting dignitaries).

 

We grab a meal on the Friday night at the delightfully-named Mexican cantina Tin Lizzys, then go back to the hotel and crash early because we have a big day tomorrow (but in reality almost entirely because we’re still completely knackered from last night’s shenanigans).

On Saturday we awake early, partially because of taking it easy the night before but mainly because our body clocks are still almost completely out of whack. We’re up about 6am (which as anyone would attest is not usually a thing in my world) so head down and grab breakfast in the wonderfully retro breakfast room that you can spy above in that frankly incredible photo diorama. The first Pavement show (for us) is tonight but we have a day to kill, so as walking is a great way to see a city – as my mate Craig showed me once in LA by suggesting that we should walk from West Hollywood to Santa Monica, without mentioning it was like 16km and going to take us six hours (would do again, but with better socks this time) – so we set off on foot towards Criminal Records in the gorgeous area of Little Five Points. It takes about an hour through some really cool (and a couple of not so cool) suburbs, but the hike proves well worth it because it’s a ripping shop with an awesome (and already way too tempting) selection, and we even get treated to an instore by Kelly Finnigan, the frontman of San Francisco psychedelic soul band The Monophonics. Although the whole band’s in town for shows he’s playing solo with his keyboard but it sounds amazing and he has some really cool songs, also throwing in a witty anecdote about recently playing at the 81st birthday party for Otis Redding, so it’s pretty great timing on our behalf.

The staff at Criminal Records are great and after a chat they send us up around the corner to another shop called Wax N Facts, which I can attest is chock full of wax (and presumably many a fact to boot). While it was quite sleepy when we arrived there about midday, over the course of the afternoon Little Five Points blossomed into a really vibrant artistic hub full of awesome shops and some even more awesome bars, one of which we check out quite comprehensively (it’s pretty cool with super-friendly bar staff who put us onto some nice local beers, even if our drinks server out in the beer garden is a bit of a jerk).

 

After all of this madness we return by Uber to the hotel, and then venture (again via Uber, I’m hoping to get some product placement coin from this blog) to the Reynoldstown region where Pavement are headlining for the next two nights at the newly-built state-of-the-art venue The Eastern. We get there early and while trying to find the rumoured bar that exists outside the venue we befriend a young (compared to us anyway) Pavement fan from Savannah, Georgia named Daniel, who’s travelled alone to see his favourite band for the first time ever and proves as excited us as about the prospect. We find the bar and nab a table in the park outside where we’re soon joined by Spiral who grabs a couple of beers to catch up (which blows poor Daniel’s mind, as well as a slew of Pavement fans on surrounding tables who after playing it cool for a while are soon queuing up for photos).

We essentially drink through most of the support band Pirahna Rama, the psych-rock collective from Richmond, Virginia, who seem pretty cool from the final few songs that we catch. Going though a metal detector on the way into the venue is a novel experience but I guess I’m glad that nobody was packing heat, although indie rock crowds tend to be in the more sedate end of the ‘crowd violence spectrum’ anyway. As we wait for Pavement to enter the fray there’s a tangible air of excitement and expectation in the room, and the place goes crazy ape bonkers when they shuffle out to a heroes’ welcome and start with ‘Fin’ from Brighten The Corners. The band is clearly in great form and having a blast and this reverie proves infectious as the whole room seems to be sporting simultaneous shiteating grins which is an incredible mob to be a part of, and even though Spiral had joked pre-gig that they’d “turned into a jam band” it was still incredible seeing them stretch songs like ‘Fight This Generation’ and ‘Type Slowly’ right out beyond the boundaries of their recorded counterparts. The big change is the addition of new touring member Rebecca Cole – who played keys in the awesome Wild Flag and drums in The Minders, and who was genuinely lovely when Spiral introduced us to her the next day – whose presence on keys and backing vocals gives a whole new cohesion and versatility to the previously somewhat ramshackle band (Bob from Pavement was quoted mid-tour as saying that “[Rebecca] makes us better than ever, allowing us to play so many songs better than ever and also play 10-12 songs we’ve never played before. She makes us more versatile”).

It’s so much freaking fun seeing my favourite band ever after a 12-year break, and it’s not hyperbole for me to say that this is the best I’ve ever seen/heard them play by a country mile, which is kinda random 30+ years into their storied career. I’ve seen them countless times now dating back to the early-’90s – on three continents and in numerous countries – and while the early shows that used to teeter on a knife’s edge were thrilling and I wouldn’t change a thing, these new shows are incredible and sound perfect (perfect sound forever!) and even have awesome extended visual production behind the stage which captures the off-kilter Pavement aesthetic perfectly, all without compromising the left-of-centre tendencies which make them so endearing in the first place. After the incredible set concludes we’re ushered to the after party on the rooftop of the venue – Spiral has really looked after us, and we even get him to smuggle in our new mate Daniel – where as well as eskies of free beer there is a make-it-yourself taco bar which might just be the best concept I’ve ever heard of (and which we gave a right hammering). All of the Pavement members are there, and Scott introduces us to fellow Pavement super-fan Yolanda from Brazil (who over the next 24 hours proved an awesome addition to our adventures), all in all it proves an amazing first night and could not have gone more swimmingly if we’d scripted it ourselves.

ATLANTA NIGHT ONE (The Eastern, Fri 8 Oct)

Fin
Shady Land
The Hexx
Date With Ikea
Spit On A Stranger
Harness Your Hopes
Silence Kid
Gold Soundz
Box Elder
Heckler Spray
Trigger Cut
Embassy Row
Fight This Generation
Cut Your Hair
Angel Carver Blues/Mellow Jazz Docent (first time since 1996 apparently)
Starlings Of The Slipstream
Summer Babe
Frontwards
Stereo
Range Life
ENCORE
Type Slowly
Two States
Father To A Sister Of A Thought
Stop Breathin

NB sadly I didn’t get many photos of the gigs – I was too busy smiling and singing with supreme gusto and wondering if life gets any better – and the ones I have are kinda blurry because that’s how I roll, but again I’ll post anyway just to kinda proved this all really happened and I’m not just exercising my right to creative expression (ie full of shit).

On Saturday we wake up around 11am (after quite a late night) to go and hang out with Spiral for the day. We wander up to The Sheraton where they’re staying (probably can’t afford The American with such a big crew) and then jump in a Lyft (Spiral’s preferred ride sharing app, as well as shrewdly broadening my product placement potential) to head to The Varsity which is a near 100-year-old diner – in the olden days it was the largest drive-in diner in the world, but which is still pretty cool – but struggle to get there because the Atlanta Gay Pride parade has blocked off half of the city to traffic as it returns to the city after a two-year pandemic layoff, causing some riotous scenes with our hilarious Lyft driver as she struggles to get us to the other side of the parade. In the end we bail and just walk on foot the rest of the way, cutting through the actual parade to get to the other side, there’s a huge crowd and everyone is having a ludicrous amount of fun and putting off such a joyously exuberant energy.

After a fun lunch of old-school burgers and chili dogs we backtrack through the parade – still going strong, still just as vibrant – after which we catch some form of ride share to a far-flung cinema where we hole up and watch the awesome David Bowie film/documentary Moonage Daydream, which I really enjoy and am glad to have experienced on the big screen (even if the volume was literally ear-shattering at some junctures).

Eventually we head back with Spiral to The Eastern, where this time he’s organised us AAA passes, which is alright I guess. We wander slack-jawed around backstage for a bit soaking it all up, before going back out on the floor where we’ve arranged to meet Daniel and Yolanda. While we were traipsing around with Spiral this afternoon Yolanda had played tennis with Mr Malkmus – whilst currently a doctor she used to be a professional tennis player – and showered us with anecdotes, explaining that it was great fun (even though Malky wouldn’t acquiesce to an actual match, preferring a leisurely hit). This time we watch all of Piranha Rama and I really enjoy it, front-person Chrissie Lozano has a great voice and writes some super-catchy songs, and their three-piece horn section adds some really punch and swing to proceedings.

Pavement eventually kick off again – this time opening with one of my fave songs ‘Grounded’ from my fave album of all time Wowee Zowee – and it’s soon abundantly clear that this is going to be a wildly different set from the night before, which is completely unreal to me. We watch a few songs from amongst the crowd before taking advantage of our AAA status and going up to a small balcony on the left side of stage – straight above frontman Stephen Malkmus’ guitar tech – where there is a bar-fridge filled with beer and we get to watch the set from the most ridiculously good vantage point you can imagine. It’s Saturday night and from our new spot you can see that the crowd is notably rowdier than the night before, everyone pumped for this occasion all have been waiting so long for and just letting the love put forth, and it’s just such a privilege to be able to watch this special occasion from this ludicrously good position (and drink free beer). The band members to a person seem to be having an absolute ball – the entire tour has sold out and every city has received them with similar adulation so why not? – and it’s all such a joy to witness, especially as they reel off new song (compared to last night) after new song.

There’s no after party tonight because everyone has early flights tomorrow to get to Austin in time to prepare for the taping of their Austin City Limits broadcast – as well as the smaller 300-capacity show later in the evening – but we use our AAA powers to go backstage and say well played sirs to all and eat some free pizza, we’re going to need some energy to nail the next leg of this ridiculously fun Pavement adventure.

ATLANTA NIGHT TWO (The Eastern, Sat 9 Oct)

Grounded
Stereo
Blackout
Grave Architecture
Heckler Spray
In The Mouth A Desert
Zurich Is Stained
Two States
Type Slowly
Harness Your Hopes
Half A Canyon
Spit On A Stranger
Unfair
Give It A Day
We Dance
Painted Soldiers
Serpentine Pad
Range Life
Perfume V
Pueblo
Cut Your Hair
ENCORE
Home
Debris Slide
Here
Shoot The Singer
Filmore Jive

ATLANTA – AUSTIN

So we wake pop ludicrously early given last night’s escapades to catch a train to the airport, in order to hit our next destination of Austin, Texas. As it turns out all of the Pavement members and crew are on the same flight, they’re en masse up towards the front and as we board we have some quick yarns on our way to our seats at the back. We catch a cab to our hotel in the Downtown area – right near The Capitol Building – and check in (it’s pretty dingy so no photos this time). We have a wander around Downtown for a while for me to get my bearings back from past adventures, then return to the hotel for a couple of hours sleep to recharge for the coming escapades.

We meet up with my mate Tim who lives here in Austin these days (or in nearby Buda anyway) at a sports bar, I know him from when he played in Spiral’s band on the Aussie tours and stayed at our place a couple of times, and we’ve long kept in touch. He’s accompanied by Luke and Brandon from Memphis – former bandmates in indie rockers Snowball from when Tim still lived in Tennessee – who are also in town for the Pavement shows, and we quickly make fast friends with this easygoing mob (and who over the next few days will regale us of stories from the Memphis scene, everything from playing in bands with Greg Cartwright to living in sharehouses with Jay Reatard).

After a few beers we head down the street to the Moody Theatre, which is where we’ll be seeing Pavement in different areas over the next couple of nights. First up is Pavement’s inaugural taping of an Austin City Limits special – the longest running music series in TV history – which I’ve always wanted to see as I own a heap of DVDs, CDs and records of live sets recorded for ACL by bands like Drive-By Truckers, Guided By Voices, Neko Case and countless more, and it’s incredible to see the iconic Austin skyline backdrop behind the stage as we scrabble from the GA area to grab a seat in the temporary bleachers erected for the occasion. It’s a pretty small and intimate affair compared to the last couple of nights – tickets are pretty hard to get apparently but Spiral sorted us like a champ – and we’re treated to an amazing, relatively-abridged set which jams in most of the band’s better known songs, but also a few obscurities as well. Because it’s streamed live online I get a text from Shelly who’s watching it on her computer from work which makes me really happy, but not as happy as the band members who all seem over the moon to be finally recording an ACL special, especially SM who seems almost playful in mood as he delivers his quirky catalogue to his delighted throng.

AUSTIN CITY LIMITS LIVE (Sun 9 Oct, The Moody Theatre)

Grounded
Summer Babe
Stereo
Black Out
Embassy Row
Zurich Is Stained
Trigger Cut
Two States
Type Slowly
Harness Your Hopes
Spit On A Stranger
Unfair
We Dance
Painted Soldiers
Fin
Range Life
Cut Your Hair

After it’s all over and we wax lyrical about how great it was, it’s back downstairs for the second show of the night, a special limited-capacity after-gig the tickets for which were super-expensive and sold out immediately by all accounts, but once again we’ve been looked after so we get to squeeze into the tiny 300-capacity space with all of the other hardcore Pavement devotees. t’s pretty packed but we’re ludicrously close to the band – and can still easily get to the bar – so it’s all a bit ridiculous really, especially when Pavement file out and start with (my fave) ‘Father To A Sister Of A Thought’ and then bash through a stream of relatively obscure songs that we haven’t been privy to in the prior shows this trip. It’s geek heaven as they dust off this awesome batch of oddities and old faves, and there’s a joyous vibe in the room as all and sundry soak up the incredibly special experience that runs late into the night.

3TEN AUSTIN CITY LIMITS LIVE (Sun 9 Oct, 3TEN)

Father To A Sister Of A Thought
Heaven Is A Truck
The Hexx
Angel Carver Blues/Mellow Jazz Docent
Feed ‘Em To The (Linden) Lions
Famę Throwa
Frontwards
Spizzle Trunk
Kennel District
AT&T
Home
Transport Is Arranged
Silence Kid
Conduit For Sale! (first time since 2010)
Folk Jam
Blue Hawaiian
Motion Suggests
Date W/ Ikea
Shady Lane
Pueblo
ENCORE
Debris Slide

There’s an after party in the aftermath but it’s pretty sparsely attended, I talk to Bob (the band’s drummer/live vibe merchant) for a while about the time we went to the races in Melbourne back in 2010 (“The Guineas!” he recalled excitedly), and then we all headed off to a cool bar a few blocks away where Tim and Co had caught up with Spiral and heaps of the band’s crew, and we stayed there until stumps trying to drown the post-double show buzz with a frankly staggering array of different alcoholic beverages (and excellent, albeit drunken, conversation).

We still don’t wind down for hours once we wash up at the hotel, still kinda flummoxed by the double awesomeness of what we’d just experienced, so it’s no surprise that we sleep well into Monday, waking in a haze in the mid-afternoon and wandering down to find something to eat (which had somehow proved not to be a massive priority yesterday). Before long it’s time to meet up with Tim, Luke and Brandon – whose tonight joined by his lovely wife Katie – and we also meet Greg, who used to be in an Austin band with Tim called Oh No Oh My, and together we all shuffle back into The Moody Theatre for what will be Pavement’s last show of their triumphant 2022 reunion. The bleachers have been taken away since the ACL taping which means the venue seems far bigger on the floor, but it’s still a pretty small room holding 2,500 (including all of the expansive upstairs seated balcony areas). Once more there’s a tangible sense of excitement and expectation, looking around it’s again quite a young crowd so obviously many in attendance are Pavement debutants (which makes it even more special for them).

Keeping in the tone of previous performances the band are also in fine spirits as they enter to a ravenous roar, starting with a couple of popular faves in ‘Cut Your Hair’ and ‘Shady Lane’ which sends the casual fans into raptures, from there alternating between deep cuts and classics amidst an infectious outpouring of love and affection from the besotted crowd at their feet. It’s a special and joyous occasion and the band seems to be going even harder than usual to wrap up their home tour – it’s been a sold out triumph with merch sales out the wazoo – on a fittingly buoyant note. In the aftermath more than one person muses to me that the show wasn’t just their fave Pavement show but perhaps the best show of all time that they’ve ever seen, and while I completely understand the sentiment I’m still too close to it all to know whether tonight is even my fave show of the last few nights, let alone my fave ever (that tiny show last night was pretty bonkers good for starters)…

AUSTIN CITY LIMITS LIVE (Mon 10 Oct, The Moody Theatre)

Cut Your Hair
Shady Lane
The Hexx
Serpentine Pad
Major Leagues
Starlings Of The Slipstream
Kennel District
Stereo
Gold Soundz
Perfume-V
Folk Jam
Range Life
Box Elder
Date W/ Ikea
Embassy Row
Heckler Spray
In The Mouth A Desert
Fight This Generation
Spit On A Stranger
Harness Your Hopes
Give It A Day
Unfair
ENCORE
Stop Breathin’
Grave Architecture
Here
Fillmore Jive

There’s another after party and I catch up with Spiral’s in-laws from Australia which is a nice surprise – I had no idea they were in town – as well as reacquaint with some of Spiral’s friends who I’ve met on past forays, and after a while we all end up in the same bar where we were at last night, repeating our effort of staying until stumps. So that’s the end of the Pavement portion of the adventure, it’s kinda sad but mainly thrilling in that we saw five amazing shows in four days in two cities and had an absolute blast. I’ve heard varying accounts that they played either 58 or 60 different songs over the five sets – I’m way too tired to count now so we can just agree that it was lots – and they sounded amazing at every show and were in routinely great spirits, which makes it infinitely more fun (and which sadly hasn’t always been the case).

On Tuesday after another extended sleep in we’re picked up downtown by Tim who drives us to his awesome pad in the back blocks of Buda, stopping at a supermarket on the way so he cam prepare for the BBQ he’s cooking and we can grab a ton of beer so we aren’t total freeloaders. At Tim’s we meet his mate Joel – who also used to play in Oh No On My – and neighbour George (who’s a complete pack of cards), as well as Tim’s dog Zowie and Brandon and Katie who have yet to head back to Memphis. We pass an awesome evening drinking beer and swapping inane jokes and stories – as well as eating Tim’s amazing tri-tip BBQ – sitting outside and soaking in how fun-but-weird it is catching up with friends (old and new) in the middle of Texas, the world doesn’t seem so ridiculously massive sometimes.

We spend Wednesday in Austin as well, generally just bumming around and trying out a few different bars, as well as checking out the excellent Waterloo Records which is only a 25-minute hike from where we’re staying. Once again we luck in on an instore, this time local outfit Deezie Brown & The Cocaine Cowboys, a rapper doing hip hop over a guitar band which works really well and provides another cool soundtrack to our record shopping experience. Tomorrow we leave Texas and fly to Portland, Oregon for the next phase of the US odyssey – way less Pavement but still quite a lot of music geek action, make sure to check back in now for the no doubt thrilling conclusion!