Pavement Reunion Tour Lands at Toronto Island Festival

Reunions are a tricky thing -- after all, bands break up for a reason and those reasons aren't easily forgotten. Pavement's recent reunion has drawn universal approval, but it's easy to see where the cracks used to be.

The lo-fi godfathers followed an all-star cast of festival openers on Toronto Island on Saturday afternoon -- the lineup included concert organizers Broken Social Scene, as well as Band of Horses, Beach House and Timber Timbre -- but after a day of anticipation it was clear who the main draw was.

The hero worship began on stage, where the current indie superstars each mentioned the huge role Pavement played in their lives, musical and otherwise, and radiated out through the audience. Walking through the crowd you could feel the excitement in the air, as die-hard fans of a long-defunct band could barely contain themselves at the promise of seeing Pavement, a group most thought would never share a stage again.

But as pumped as everyone else was, the band themselves initially seemed unenthusiastic -- particularly leader Stephen Malkmus, who through the first handful of songs seemed to be unsure whether this was all a good idea. The notes were all there on set-opener 'Cut Your Hair,' easily the band's most recognizable hit, but they were missing a sense of fun.

By the time the band invited Broken Social Scene frontman Kevin Drew and Band of Horses singer Ben Bridwell on stage to sing along on 'Kennel District,' the band seemed to settle in and start enjoying themselves. Malkmus' deadpan muttered thanks between songs were traded for a self-deprecating "thanks for sticking around" and a funny aside by Bob Nastanovich about an instrument he brought along that he claimed was "worse than a vuvuzela" (but which sounded exactly like the African horn when he played it for the crowd).

As they wrapped up their encore and fans headed towards the dock to catch the ferry back to the mainland, there was a satisfaction in knowing that, despite their differences, Pavement could still put together a good rock show.