As if touring the crap out of the Western world this year wasn’t enough, not to mention booking a veritable indie rock dream show, Pavement has decided to make its reunion even more special by venturing somewhere the influential band has never before played — its own backyard. That’s right, as reported by Recordnet.com, for the first time ever, Steven Malkmus, Scott Kannberg (who both graduated from neighboring Lodi’s Tokay High School), and the rest of the band (all are from the East Coast) will play in their hometown of Stockton, California.
Not that the band has ever denounced its hometown or anything. Kannberg, a.k.a. Spiral Stairs, told The Record in October, “I still consider Pavement to be from Stockton,” adding, “That’s our place of birth. We started from there.” That is, in original drummer Gary Young’s home studio, Louder Than You Think.
The venue is said to be the 2,000-seat Bob Hope Theatre, and it goes down June 24th, the day before Pavement plays the much bigger Greek Theatre at UC Berkeley. This will be quite the homecoming — not only is the venue the most intimate of any Pavement is playing on this tour, local punk legends The Authorities are slated to open. And there might even be another surprise: Young, who drummed with the band until 1992, including on its debut Slanted & Enchanted, may show up, according to Kannberg.
Young himself weighed in on this possibility, which sounds a lot like what happened at Faith No More’s final Warfield appearance in April. “Well, I wish,” he said. “It’d be as big as it ever gets.” Kannberg and Young are definitely in contact; Young received a birthday e-mail from Kannberg on May 3rd. Oh, and he lives just east in Linden, California. So this has to happen!
Tickets, priced at $35 plus fees, go on sale this Saturday, May 15th, at 10 a.m. on the venue’s website. And you’ll want to jump on this, because it only took three days for Pavement to sell 20,000 tickets for the Central Park shows. Do a little math, and that’s…uh, divide by ten or something. Basically, the tickets will sell out fast.
Pavement 2010 Tour Dates:
05/10 – London, UK @ Brixton Academy
05/11 – London, UK @ Brixton Academy
05/12 – London, UK @ Brixton Academy
05/13 – London, UK @ Brixton Academy
05/14 – Minehead, UK @ All Tomorrow’s Parties
05/15 – Minehead, UK @ All Tomorrow’s Parties
05/16 – Minehead, UK @ All Tomorrow’s Parties
05/18 – Brussels, BE @ Ancienne Belgique
05/19 – Berlin, DE @ Astra
05/20 – Prauge, CZ @ Palac Akropolis
05/21 – Vienna, AT @ Arena
05/22 – Munich, DE @ Muffathalle
05/24 – Rome, IT @ Atlantico Live
05/25 – Bologna, IT @ Estragon
05/28 – Barcelona, ES @ Primavera Sound
05/29-31 – George, WA @ Sasquatch! Music Festival
06/19 – Toronto, ON @ Toronto Island Concert
06/24 – Stockton, CA @ Bob Hope Theatre *
06/25 – Berkeley, CA @ Greek Theatre
07/04 – Roskilde, DK @ Roskilde Festival
07/18 – Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Music Festival
07/30-08/01 – Montreal, QC @ Osheaga Music Festival
08/12 – Oslo, NO @ Oya Festival
08/14 – Gotenberg, SE @ Way Out West Festival
09/09 – Broomfield, CO @ 1st Bank Center
09/11 – Kansas City, MO @ Uptown Theater
09/12 – St. Paul, MN @ Roy Wilkins Auditorium
09/17 – Philadelphia, PA @ Mann Center for the Performing Arts
09/18 – Boston, MA @ Agganis Arena
09/21 – New York, NY @ Central Park SummerStage
09/22 – New York, NY @ Central Park SummerStage
09/23 – New York, NY @ Central Park SummerStage
09/24 – New York, NY @ Central Park SummerStage
09/26 – Atlanta, GA @ The Tabernacle
09/30 – Hollywood, CA @ Hollywood Bowl #
* = w/ The Authorities
# = w/ Sonic Youth & No Age
