Pavement has returned to the stage with one of those performances that only they could do.
The band offered their first concert since last November at the Mosswood Meltdown festival in Oakland and surprised the audience by performing a peculiar version of “Stairway To Heaven”, the Led Zeppelin classic.
Far from seeking a faithful recreation, Stephen Malkmus approached the song with the group’s usual sense of humor. The singer performed only part of the final verses of the song, but he improvised a good part of the lyrics, sneaking in absurd phrases like “I like mangos” (“I like mangoes”) and even joking on stage with “I wish I had rehearsed the lyrics a little more.” The result was a deliberately chaotic version that is already widely circulating on social networks.
The concert also marked the beginning of a new round of performances by Pavement within their long reunion, which began in 2022. The repertoire included no shortage of classics such as “Harness Your Hopes”, whose unexpected resurgence among younger audiences thanks to digital platforms has turned the song into one of the group’s biggest late hits.
As expected, the video of this irreverent version of “Stairway To Heaven” has not taken long to go viral, confirming that, even when they play to destroy one of rock’s most untouchable anthems, Pavement continue doing things their own way.
