Pavement Play First 'Real' Reunion Show in Central Park

For a moment in September 2009, there was the brief notion that Pavement's reunion would consist of just one show at Central Park's SummerStage. Of course, they went on to announce numerous additional dates and perform for thousands of fans clamoring for those carefree days of the '90s spent arguing over seven-inches at the local record store. But the significance of Tuesday night's Central Park show wasn't lost on Pavement frontman Stephen Malkmus, who noted early on, "These are the real first shows. The others were just warm-ups."

With that remark, a light chuckle breezed through the autumn night, the irony not lost on the early adopters who crashed Ticketmaster's servers for what was thought to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The band then churned out a set of favorites, including 'Cut Your Hair,' 'Stereo,' 'Rattled by the Rush' and a long, thoroughly jammed-out 'Fight This Generation.' But more so, Pavement seemed either extremely relaxed or entrenched in slacker mode for this show. There were a handful of false starts, including a weird intro to 'We Dance,' where Malkmus said "snip snip snip" at the beginning, leaving us wondering if that meant to stop the song or just snip something if you get a chance.

But that's part of the fun in seeing Pavement -- from the '90s on, they've had their sloppy and self-aware moments. Malkmus even remarked after 'We Dance' that he once heard legendary jazz space cadet Sun Ra play something similar, an ironic reference to the out-there arrangement Pavement have been playing on this reunion. But the best Malkmus quip came after the classic rock-country sounds of 'Range Life,' where he assured fans that the version they just performed was a good one and that he should know, because he's heard every one. Technically, he's right.

Pavement are set to play Central Park through Friday and will headline the Virgin Free Fest on Saturday and the Matador 21st Birthday Bash in October. Check out Pavement performing 'Range Life' from Tuesday's show.