When I was last at the Tab in February, we just had drinks at the Marriott bar located across the parking lot from the venue.

Is there an opening band? Like, what time are you guys going to the venue?

Looks like its Times New Viking. I'm guessing I will get there at 7:30 or so after watching NFL at the Taco Mac nearby.

Definitely want to get there in time to see TNV. Prob try to get there around 7:30, too.

yeah, I'm not drinking tonight due to some stomach issues so I'm gonna get down there and get a good spot.

Great show!

Wish I'd been able to find/meet up with you guys, but as packed as it was, there wasn't much point.

TNV was great, too, but it was funny to see how many people in the audience were pissed off by them or just thought they sucked.

I saw and spoke to FUDave and looked around for you guys since I was down on the floor fairly early but like, you say, it got really packed. FWIW, I was right in the middle of the floor for most of the show.

I thought Pavement was great, Malkmus was having a good time, pretty decent setlist and an all around swell evening. Glad I went.

Can't say that I agree with you on the opener. I wasn't pissed off by them, but I did think they sorta sucked. I'll throw them a compliment and say that the songs where the chick and the dude sang worked best. Also, memo the their guitar player: your drummer shouldn't have to tell you to tune your guitar. Twice.

Also, Nostanovich on "Unfair" fucking ruled.

I didn't get there as early as I wanted to. TNV was in the middle of their second song by the time we made it out onto the floor. I managed to find my coworker who I'd bought the ticket from and ended up hanging out by him over by the sound booth for the duration of Pavement's set. And when I say "hanging out", I mean totally unable to move at all. I had a pretty good view from there, but I did kinda wish I at least had enough room to shift my weight from time to time.

As for TNV, I totally get what the issues are with them, technically, but I dunno, they just work for me. They were definitely off a lot of the time, and it was kind of funny how the guitar player was just going at it oblivious to how out of tune he was. The worst part was that it forced them to stop in the middle of my favorite song by them. Still, I love their energy, and I would kind of expect a show by them to be kind of haphazard. (I went into expecting the chick to sound painfully off, not the guitar player.) I know and like a lot of their songs so that certainly helps. They'd be better in a small club most likely.

Yeah, to be honest, I haven't heard them on record at all, but I'd agree that they would be more at home in a club.

TNV are just not suited for rooms like that. few bands are, I fucking hate the tabernacle. The only band that ever sounded decent in there is my morning jacket.

The show was fantastic despite a horrible mix...I love the malkmus guitar god role he's playing now.

however...no summer babe????

completely wasted an opportunity to have people lose their minds by playing Unseen Power of the Picket Fence

Apparently they haven't been playing that at all on this tour. No idea why.

Agree about the sound at the Tabernacle, but I have seen a show or two that sounded great there. Tom Waits was one, IIRC.

Man, I've always thought things sounded great there. It's not a symphony hall or the Fox. It's a rock hall.

Pogues, Band of Horses, MMJ, Strokes, among the many I've seen there all sounded great to me.

bands that use heavy reverb (boh, mmj) sound better...but anything with subtlety or a drier sound ends up getting lost.

YES! Short of setting the guitar on fire, he brought out every trick in the book.

The sound on the floor was not as good as upstairs and on the wings downstairs. I blame the bass amp: too much fucking stage volume especially to be mic'ed. I know because I was standing directly in it's path for 3/4 of the show.

Dude, seriously, did you notice the bass being so loud that it would rattle the microphone and then it would swing into the speaker cab...bad fucking form.

Notice? I was staring right at it since it was causing me some discomfort. And chubby ol' Ibold just went about his way, ruining the mix with every note he played.

Full disclosure: I've actually been that guy who's bass amp was so loud it impeded people's enjoyment and drew the consternation of sound men, club owners, bartenders, etc.

After driving to Greenville right after the show and getting up early to drive back to Charlotte on Monday, I ended up taking the day off. Prob a combination of exhaustion and dehydration from the weekend.

In any case, I loved the show. The crowd was loving them, the setlist was great, and I had a good view on the floor to the left up front by the rail. Got some decent shots from my point and shoot, which I will post one or two when I get them uploaded.

I was disappointed in no "Summer Babe" and that they didn't play more from Terror Twilight - "Major Leagues," "Spit on a Stranger" (which they did play at Pitchfork) or "Carrot Rope." I'm not attuned to these things as much as a lot of people, but the sound didn't bother me too much.

Times New Viking was ok - maybe just not my bag though. I like some of their songs, but the singing or general out of tune-ness got to me and kind of gave me a headache. My buddy was annoyed at the drummer's fucked up cymbal and how bad it sounded.

One funny thing my buddy pointed out as we were leaving the venue - Pavement's fans generally aren't an attractive bunch.

I fucking love Nastanovich.

this is true...they were counting plaid shirts on the way in...I was #93

About 70-80% dudes, too.

But that's true at a lot of good shows, unfortunately.

Pavement's fanbase might be a little more frumpy than even the average indie rock show

Totally, and by extension I felt especially dressed up.

To be fair, I'm sure there were young bucks there who weren't even born when Slanted came out. I'm sure it was ripe with aging hipsters. That album is 19 years old(!)

It'd be like 20 year old Derris going to see the Dead in the 90's and finding middle aged hippies.

I'd say this crowd skewed older than most shows (and certainly older than say, the Pixies reunion back in '04 when there where honest to goodness teenyboppers in the crowd).

Also, I agree with two guns about being bummed by the lack of Terror Twilight songs since that and CRCR are my favorite Pavement albums.