Pavement Takes a Winning Side Road

Many rockers--Mick Jagger and Eddie Vedder come to mind--use larger-than-life physical gestures to embody the tone of their songs in concert. Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus merely stood sideways onstage during the Stockton band’s show Saturday at the Troubadour--but that was the perfect demonstrative stance for the quintet’s music.

Where the tendency in rock today is to come at the audience headon, Pavement approaches from the side, with slightly flat, disjointed imagery and music that still qualifies as truly alternative at a time when that term has been overused and abused. No wonder the band got a mixed reception on last summer’s Lollapalooza ‘95, a forum where subtleties and indirectness are often lost.

Back in the friendly confines of a small, packed club Saturday, Pavement was loose in spirit and tight in sound. The band’s personably wry, willfully inconsequential side was boosted by the intimacy (abetted by clown-in-residence Bob Nastanovich), but so was its sneakily unguarded emotionalism, the element that ultimately gives Pavement its depth and staying power.

That latter side was showcased in a new song, “Give It a Day,” with an aura of hope, promise and patience carried by an expansive melody echoing John Lennon’s “In My Life.” It was another sideways shift from a band that looks set to make a career of such unassuming yet winning moves.