done well is so much....better?

So last night we saw Stephen Malkmus with no jicks at the Knitting Factory Tap Bar.

I remember when news of the many-pavement-songs-featuring Jicks show in Milwaukee? trickled through the internet a while ago and feeling envy. And going to various SM/Jix shows and wondering if it would be the setting for a pavement song or two...9:30 club in dc during first tour (didn't expect anything, no pave), irving plaza later (ditto), celebrate brooklyn (pretty big crowd, in the rain, maybe? but nothing), opening for radiohead (maybe play a "big" song for a big crowd? no), 4th of july matadorfest (pavement were on matador, so maybe? but no). Anyway after all this anticipation, we see him at the knitting factory, and not even in the main room, and SM announces that he's playing requests.

So we get half of Watery Domestic, Box Elder, and We Dance, among others. And other things that came as a result of requests, that seem highly curious choices...major leagues? vanessa from queens? Anyway, most all of these songs appeared in various stages of wreck...forgotten lyrics, inadequate instrumentation, chord forgetting...and it was the most memorable tuesday night in forever. I enjoyed seeing the old fanboy guy justify his request of church on white by telling smalk that "it's right by here, the streets, church and white" as if the songwriter wasn't present. Kind of like when Chris Farley interviewed Paul McCartney on SNL. Enjoyable, because it's entirely possible I might have said something similarly dumb.

Of course other blogs were all over this.

Now all SM should do is go and hire Mary Timony and Toshi who used to be a fiery furnaces (and why not ex-furnace andy too?) for jicks version 2.0.