May 9, 1997
Pavement's on the road to perfection

It may be giving easy marks to rave about Pavement's concert at the Phoenix Wednesday based on the fact that the U.S. band managed to tackle a fairly basic task: They put on a real show.

But what a show it was.

This is a group renowned not for their dedication to excellence, but their defiance in the face of it.

From their trend-setting 1992 debut Slanted And Enchanted, through 1994's critically-acclaimed Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain and 1995's difficult Wowee Zowee, Pavement's music has always sounded like a brilliant accident.

Even on their cohesive current disc, Brighten The Corners, their songs seem to teeter magically between wise pop and chaotic slop. Unfortunately, their past live performances have tended to favor the latter.

So, Pavement finally triumphed Wednesday, delighting a capacity crowd of 1,000 with the perfect balancing act.

Following local openers King Cobb Steelie's spacey groove, U.S. openers Shudder To Think's flashy rock seemed drawn from the opposite end of the musical spectrum. Pavement came up somewhere in between.

After soothing the audience with a heavy dose of old Kraftwerk bleeps and drones via the club p.a., the quintet kickstarted the 90-minute rock-heavy gig with bright-eyed Crooked Rain track Silent Kid -- also listed on that album as Silence Kit, in keeping with Pavement's cryptic ways.

No matter how well Pavement played during the songs that followed, singer-guitarist Stephen Malkmus, guitarist-singer Scott "Spiral Stairs" Kannberg, percussionist-keyboardist Bob Nastanovich, drummer Steve West and bassist Mark Ibold looked as surprised as anyone by what was transpiring. Therein lay their charm.

Each member seemed to pull in a different direction: Malkmus was a casual emcee, frequently launching highly-effective guitar solos during which he seemed to get distracted by his own leggy dance steps. Whether poised at the mike or hunched over his guitar, the preppy frontman -- whom Courtney Love once called the Grace Kelly of rock -- was effortlessly engaging.

Like a manic sidekick, Nastanovich piped in with high-pitched backup vocals wherever he pleased. Kannberg, West and Ibold provided a rhythmic spine that was just stooped enough to match Pavement's slack reputation, but strong enough to carry new songs like Shady Lane, Embassy Row and the anthemic Date With Ikea --which Kannberg sang -- into the musical end zone. The kids went nuts.

Older numbers like Cut Your Hair, Stop Breathing and set-closer Summer Babe were spontaneously bashed into perfection. It was like watching the band give birth to their strongest material during some inspired jam session.

Any rough edges were smoothed out with the jazzy Blue Hawaiian and encore tunes Type Slowly and Starlings In The Slipstream.

This is a sure contender for gig-of-the-year. The fact that Pavement probably didn't know -- or care -- made it all the more enjoyable.