September 24th, 2010 8:17am
The Skies Won’t Sink My Soul
Pavement @ Rumsey Playfield in Central Park 9/23/2010
Grounded / Gold Soundz / Silent Kid / Date With IKEA / Unfair / Spit On A Stranger / Rattled By The Rush / Stereo / Loretta’s Scars / Frontwards / Stop Breathin’ / Shoot The Singer / Trigger Cut / Cut Your Hair / Fight This Generation / Two States / Fin / Summer Babe / She Believes / Range Life // Kennel District / Shady Lane / Starlings of the Slipstream / Our Singer / Heckler Spray – Mellow Jazz Docent tease / In The Mouth A Desert / We Dance / Box Elder
Sunday was the warm-up, Tuesday was the classic, Wednesday was the rain night, and this…this was the weird show. Malkmus was in an odd mood — lower energy than the past few nights, a little cranky, a little sloppy — but it came together, especially as the set went on and things became more loose and goofy. I appreciate that each of these shows has had its own character, that I’m seeing different types of Pavement concerts. Ultimately, this was the kind of show the band is best known for. Even if this wasn’t them at their very best, it was a very good and entertaining show with some very memorable and emotional moments tossed in with lots of self-deprecating jokes from Malkmus, especially silly antics from Bob, and a noticeably dark tone in the improvised sequences.
Pavement “Our Singer”
“Our Singer” was very rarely played in the old days; it only just came back to the sets in the final weeks of this reunion tour. When it’s performed, it’s just Malkmus and Steve West, and in last night’s performance, Spiral and Bob walked on for a couple shouts. This was one of the best and most moving performances of the week, spare and loose but very much in touch with the raw, anxious emotion at the heart of the song. A lot of songs from the Slanted & Enchanted era are about waiting for things to happen or bracing for potential failure; “Our Singer” is the one that puts that theme front and center without doing anything to obscure the point. There’s a lot of hope in the lyrics, a feeling that he’s right on the cusp of something worthwhile even when he’s singing “I’ve dreamt of this but it never comes.” I’ve always thought of this song as music for the dawn, alert and awake and about to face the day. Maybe it’s the day. Maybe it’s just another day. You never get a sense of the stakes. That sounds true to me.
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