Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks
By Tim Bugbee
Saturday. May 17, 4:29 PM
live at Paradise (Boston, MA) April 3rd, 2008.

Of all the leaders of the big indie rock bands in the late '80s and through the '90s, Stephen Malkmus has the oddest career trajectory. He's still maintained his sardonic and somewhat detached sense of humor, but somewhere along the line he ditched the tight song format and morphed into an indie rock version of Yngwie Malmsteen or Steve Vai, spewing meandering solos that might not sound out of place on an unlabeled jam band bootleg tape. Maybe he's been practicing really hard via Guitar Hero or simply has discovered the joys of plundering the latest trove of dusty psych-rock classics, reissued for fresh consumption.

It's hard to imagine that he's got four post-Pavement records out, and even harder for me to explain that, despite being a big Pavement fan (on board and buying retail since the first Drag City single), I'd never seen them live aside from a show in '91, just as their Summer Babe single was released. 17 years on and Steve has cheated Father Time, looking remarkably unaffected by the ensuing years. The relocation of SM HQ to Portland, OR made recruiting ex-Sleater-Kinney drummer Janet Weiss as a Jick a key strategic acquisition, never a bad addition to any band. Though the set list was heavy on Real Emotional Trash material (all but "Elmo Delmo" was played), songs recorded prior to her tenure such as "Baby C'mon" or "Animal Midnight" never slipped her up. The packed room was eager for a bit of interaction with their object of admiration (and in the case of several young starry-eyed women I saw, desire), and questions like "what do you think of Boston" were met with responses like "it's a nice street." "Wicked Wanda" was prefaced by Steve noting that Wanda is a big name in Estonia, and there was some kinda bizarre audience exclamation of "devil brow" that Steve mutated to "Devil Braü, the beer for the tattooed jet set."

Despite the length of some of the new material, it never felt like you were stuck in some patchouli patch: the solos were extended and lengthy at times, but always fit within the song instead of trampling all over it, and was especially evident on something like "Animal Midnight" or "Hopscotch Willie," in particular showing more than a hint of familiarity with Sonic Youth. He's got an unusual, plectrum-less style of playing, in stark contrast to the scraping, The Fall-esque sound which was where he started two decades ago. The show ended with the obligatory encore, and a couple of curve balls were tossed our way: first off, he reached back to the eponymous debut album for "The Hook," and then into Fear's "I Don't Care About You," introduced with a straight face as an SS Decontrol song. One other unusual situation from this show was in regards to the photo policy. If there are any restrictions, they are typically along the lines of "first three songs / no flash." We were told "anything but the first three songs," which led to my brain wondering what was in store for the audience in those first three songs? Was the original lineup of Pavement going to shuffle out and they'd play side one of Slay Tracks (1933-1969)? Would there be Captain Sensible-style nudity? Turns out nothing weird went down, but when dealing with matters related to Malkmus, always expect a deeply embedded tongue in the nearby cheek.

Tim Bugbee

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