September 9th, 2010
Last night I saw one of my most anticipated shows this year: the 90′s band Pavement got together for a one-off reunion tour and brought Quasi along as their opener for their west coast dates. Quasi’s new album is one of the best I’ve heard and is definitely my favorite album this year (I’m not the only one who thinks so — read what Carrie Brownstein had to say about it). They didn’t come to Vancouver on their tour and I had debated going down to Portland to see them but they hooked up as the openers for Pavement, making a trip to Portland unnecessary.
I dragged everyone in early to see Quasi and they were fantastic! The new songs sounded great with loads of guitar. Sam blew a string early in the set and changed it while Janet and Joanna segued the song into a pounding guitar and bass solo. There’s a reason I never, ever miss a show with Janet Weiss on drums. She’s incredible to watch.
Pavement was a lot of fun! With all their goofing around you’d never expect their music to sound as good as it does. The show was mostly a greatest hits thing with a few audience requests thrown in at the end. A few people in the front were yelling for their favorite songs and, after a brief discussion onstage, the band jumped into them near the end. Stephen Malkmus was the most fun and looked quite un-serious about the whole thing. He would casually hold his guitar in some strange position to start some of the songs, almost as though it was an afterthought instead of the lead instrument.
There’s an avalanche of great bands coming through in the next couple of months:
Sept 26 – Flaming Lips at the Malkin Bowl
Oct 5 – Surfer Blood at The Biltmore
Oct 12 – Holy F**k at the Rickshaw
Oct 13 – Superchunk at Venue
Oct 22 – Gogol Bordello at The Commodore
Nov 26 – Grinderman at The Commodore
I’ve been a little quiet in the past month as I focus on getting my place cleared out (I’ve managed to purge about 1/3 of my possessions and my condo looks WAY better as a result) and getting back into running and going to the gym regularly. There have been some recent adventures I’ve wanted to post and hopefully I’ll get them up soon.
This weekend Sharon and I are joining a pack of our friends in going to a wilderness campground just south of Lund. I’m very excited and also hoping that the weather doesn’t rain too much.
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