28 February 2023 – Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane – words and pictures by Bec Harbour
Possibly one of the most anticipated tours this year for indie-rock kids, Pavement packed out the Fortitude Music Hall on Tuesday night (a school night and all). A welcome to country and we were off and running!
The night opened with Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever (RBCF) and I can’t think of another band that would have been more perfect with their infectious indie-rock jams and their high-energy stage performance. With a set that took in a best of the best from their latest through to earlier material they kicked off with ‘An Airconditioned Man’ and before you know it were moving their rollicking set through ‘Mainland’ and ‘Talking Straight’. I have always wanted to catch RBCF and this support slot did not disappoint. It was only around 8 songs but RBCF used every inch of the stage and their time to deliver a solid performance, wrapping up with fan favourite ‘French Press’.
Even though RBCF played a high-energy set, the crowd were low-key in the intermission waiting for headliners Pavement. Pavement are very much a lo-fi band and I thought the crowd were reflecting that until Pavement came onstage. They were greeted with cheers and people calling out to individual band members (particularly Stephen Malkmus) who all took the time to acknowledge and appreciate the enthusiasm directed toward them.
Pavement opened with ‘Spit on a Stranger’ to a roar of approval from the crowd, then moved through ‘Harness Your Hopes’, ‘Angel Carver Blues/Mellow Docent’, ‘Two States’ and ‘Kennel District’. Pavement, true to form (and the opposite to RBCF) played to the crowd with minimal movement and heads down somewhat. The exception was Bob Nastanovich who prowled the stage with his tambourine and mic.
Every song was met with a huge cheer from the crowd, and you could really tell this was a crowd of long-time fans. When the band hit the half way mark with ‘Goldsoundz’ and later ‘Range Life’ people were dancing to the lilting country tones of one of their best-known songs from the album Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain.
Pavement did not disappoint – the crowd were treated to a huge set – 22 songs in all. They wrapped up the set with ‘Folk Jam’ that had a little bit of Television’s ‘Marquee Moon’ in tribute to the recent passing of Tom Verlaine and then lastly ‘Conduit for Sale!’
We knew that there would be an encore – and how could there not be when the main set had not included songs such as ‘Blue Hawaiian’, Major Leagues’, ‘Cut Your Hair’ and the closer ‘Stop Breathing’ (one of my personal favourites). To see Pavement live after playing Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain and Slanted and Enchanted a lot in the 90’s was a fantastic experience and 100% would do again.
