First Pavement Date Confirmed, Tickets On Sale A YEAR In Advance

Sure, it's huge that Pavement has finally decided to reunite. But even so, it's baffling to learn that tickets are going on sale more than a year in advance. Yes, you heard that correctly: tickets for the band's September 21st, 2010 date at the Central Park Summer Stage will go on sale tomorrow morning, September 19th, 2009.

Tomorrow's on-sale is a presale via the band's new site crookedrain.com, and apparently a full on-sale will occur on Tuesday September 25th. The password for the pre-sale is ZOWEE and the ticketing link is here. Apparently once the full on-sale occurs, there will also be tickets "without surcharges from the Nokia Theatre box office in Times Square and from Earwax at 218 Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg."

If you can already feel the megahype starting to build, you're not alone.

mp3: Pavement - Type Slowly (Live)

Dinosaur Jr, The Walkmen and Saviours Played Summerstage - Pictures, Review

On Sunday afternoon we, along with a slew of other fans, braved the 90+ degree heat, and made our way to Summerstage for the final show of the summer. A free gig featuring Dinosaur Jr., The Walkmen, and Saviours, it was a completely solid dose of rock and roll, and just right for the killer heat wave the city's been experiencing for the past week.

Bay Area natives Saviours opened the show with an extremely solid dose of in-your-face metal. We have to admit, when it kicked off we were skeptical as to how the crowd might take to the bold genre leap, but there was definitely unbridled enthusiasm. Given J. Mascis' massive guitar sounds and killer riffs, it follows that his fans would be open to some metaltastic goodness.

Soon after, The Walkmen took the stage, and delivered a massive set that was far more rock oriented than their show Friday night at the Guggenheim. While they still played a fair dose of their more heady material, they also dug into their rock roots, and unrepentantly delivered fan favorite "The Rat".

It's also worth mentioning that the band, despite how awesome they sounded Friday, sounded even better on Sunday. It was as though Friday had been a dry run, and Sunday was the true delivery. The band seemed more conscious of their sound, and all the playing seemed more immediate and in your face. What's more, Leithauser's voice sounded even better than on Friday, which was truly remarkable.

All in all, the band managed to offer up a killer set that completely catered to the more rock-oriented vibe of the bill, and left us with an extremely lucid demonstration of just how versatile The Walkmen can be as a live unit.

The show wrapped up with a show from Dinosaur Jr., and it was everything one might expect: the band is ridiculously tight, loud, and ready to deliver. In the blistering Sunday heat, they dove into a lengthy set of classic material and never let up.

What's more, the band did pull in a fair amount of new material, and it was remarkable just how easily it blended into the set. The trio has really managed to seamlessly return to form, and it's almost as though they were never on hiatus, and just kept making great rock and roll.

And, at the end of the day, that's exactly what Sunday's show was all about: blistering, sweaty, awesome rock and roll in the hot August heat. Between all three bands, the gamut of rock was traversed, and it balanced perfectly to round out this year's Summerstage in fine form. Well played.

Many more pictures at the HAD Archive

Floored By Four (Nels Cline, Mike Watt) and M. Ward Played Central Park Summer Stage - Review, Pics, Setlist

On Saturday night, the rains managed to hold off just in time for an amazing evening at Central Park's Summer Stage. Not only was the gig free and the headliner a Mr. Matt Ward, but it was also the live debut of Nels Cline and Mike Watt's new project, Floored By Four. It was beautiful summer evening event that was not to be missed.

Floored By Four opened the night with a fantastic set that not only showcased all four member's talents, but ran the gamut stylistically as well. The tunes the band played could be described as everything from prog rock to ambient to experimental jazz. Suffice it to say, it was interesting.

Suprisingly, the audience seemed relatively uninformed of the band's considerable artistic legacy, and we overheard little beyond "some guy named Mike Watt with the guitarist from Wilco" as a descriptive phrase. Suffice it to say, kids, time to do your research. Nonetheless, the set was fantastic, and those who did appreciate it, did so in spades.

While the whole set was a blast, we have to say that the highlight of the set was the searing guitar work by Cline at the end of the set. Every time he reached a plateau that didn't seem possible to exceed, he would go further, and then some. It wasn't hurting things that Cline and Watt clearly have a long established dynamic, and play off of each other ridiculously well. We can't wait to hear this record.

M. Ward hit the stage promptly at 8:30, to a crowd that was devoutedly engaged with him. Dressed as the man in black, Ward delivered an hour twenty set that hit decidedly upon all the fan favorites. Apparently the set was the last one of the Ward's tour in support of Hold Time, and it was clear from the get go that he was there to deliver.

Despite some technical difficulties with an amp, Ward delivered an incredibly solid set. In fact, our only complaint would be that it was almost too solid. It seems that Ward has gotten so comfortable with his band and his carefully manicured sound, that there was little adventure or surprise to be had in his performance.

Granted, surprise is not necessarily the key to a good rock show, and Ward unquestionably gave exactly that. As always, his voice was in top form, the band was dead on, and the crowd loved every minute of it. Still, having seen Ward a number of times, we have to say that this was probably the most staid and reserved we've seen him. While there's little you can argue with given a fantastic free set from an amazing artist, we're just hoping that his outing with Monsters of Folk will put a bit more of an edge on him the next time he's in town.

M Ward Setlist
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Sad Song
One Hundred Million Years
Post War
Chinese Translation
Rave On (Buddy Holly Cover)
Never Had Nobody Like You
Hold Time
Jailbird
To Save Me
Poor Boy, Minor Key
Poison Cup
Fool Says
Magic Trick
Big Boat
Bean Vine Blues (John Fahey Cover)
Fisher Of Men
Requiem
Roll Over Beethoven (Chuck Berry Cover)
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Helicopter
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