Pavement Kick Off Primavera Sound's Eclectic Delights

"I got in the elevator with Mark E. Smith, Colin from Wire and two members of Mission of Burma," said Pavement's Scott "Spiral Stairs" Kannberg, as the band kicked off their opening night headline set at Primavera Sound 2010. "It was a punk rock wet dream."

Stephen Malkmus explained by way of reply, "That's just another day at the office for Primavera Sound." The festival in Barcelona, Spain has built up a formidable reputation for eclectic lineups, and 2010 is no exception, with the indie rock royalty of Pavement and the Pixies ruling over a bill which is a veritable buffet of alternative delights.

Pavement were joined onstage by Kevin Drew from Broken Social Scene, fresh from his own band's set, to sing backing vocals -- the band commented that "it was good to have a good backing singer for a change." Later on, Monotonix frontman Ami Shalev waltzed with Bob Nastanovich while Les Savy Fav's Tim Harrington watched from the wings. The band raced through their back catalogue of crowd-pleasing classics including 'Cut Your Hair,' 'Gold Soundz,' 'Stereo,' 'Shady Lane,' 'Two States,' 'Unfair' and 'Stop Breathin'.' Nastanovich dedicated the show, more than a decade later, as "an apology to all the fans who showed up to [Spanish festival] Benicassim in 1999 when the stage blew away."

Earlier in the day, the aforementioned Mark E. Smith and the Fall's current lineup rattled through new LP 'Your Future, Our Clutter,' while a huge crowd showed up to experience the atmospheric delights of the XX's Primavera debut. Elsewhere, Surfer Blood, Wild Beasts, Superchunk and Titus Andronicus impressed, while F--- Buttons soaked up (and woke up) a large post-Pavement audience with a bone-shatteringly loud rip through their psych-drone dance classic 'Tarot Sport.'