When I walked out of the Middle East on this particular Tuesday night, I felt as cheated as a Guns N' Roses fan must've felt on that tour where they supported that double album that hadn't even been released at the time.

    Okay, so Guns n' Roses is no Pavement, and for all I know, the Use Your Illusion tour could have been one hell of an experience. The fact of the matter is though, that Pavement's Brighten The Corners album had just come out on the day that I was going to see them, and I didn't get a chance to listen to the songs before hearing them play about two thirds of it live.

    However, the further away I get away from the performance and the better acquainted I get with Corners, I realize what a good performance I saw.

    They opened up with a stellar reading of "Grounded," which was enhanced quite nicely by Mr. Nostanovich's Moog synthesizer.

    They then moved onto a song called "Westie Can't Drum," which I had read about long before I heard it, and was surprised to not see it on the album. I was able to read the lyric sheet that day at my temp job. The song's main riff is frighteningly similar to Billy Squier's "Everybody Wants You," and I was impressed by their discretion to keep the track off the album

    "Transport is Arranged" sounded awesome that night, and it sounds really cool on the new album as well. The live version shocased a Malkmus wah wah break that sounded like early Bob Marley, while the version on the album has a really flutey mellowtron. I enjoyed hearing the live version first, because as I was a little bit familiar with the song, I had no idea how cool the produced version would sound. Hats off to bands who play their songs differently live than on the record.

    Nostanovich came out from behind his kit of random instruments to yell the verses to "Unfair," which was pretty cool, and "Zurich is Stained" was given a C+ by the band after their lackluster rendition.

    Pavement's main singer Stephen Malkmus always seems to have the problem of choosing which octave he wants to sing in live, because his talk-sing doesn't carry over the PA as well as it does on disc. So he shifts back and forth and decides then and there how he wants to sing it. It doesn't usually work.

    "Gangsters and Pranksters" from the Pacific Trim e.p. , was a pleasant surprise, especially with its altered lyrics. I couldn't really understand what he was singing, but I know he used the middle part as the beginning. Again, playing it differently live will win praise with me any day.

    The first chords of "Old to Begin" sound a lot like AC/DC's "Rock n Roll Ain't Noise Pollution," which would certainly make for an interesting cover or medley at least. No such oddity occurred on that night though.

    Then came "Shady Lane," the catchiest song on the new album. It seems that with this song Pavement have finally perfected the style that they were working towards with some of the Wowee Zowee stuff like "AT&T" and "Grave Architecture."

    "Cut Your Hair" was fun to sing along to, and the arrangement was refreshingly sparser than on Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. On this song, like many in the evening guitarist Spiral Stairs was having troubles with his guitar sound. He seemed pretty pissed. Everything sounded dandy once again in "Kennel District," and Stairs' voice sounded better than ever: you could actually hear what he was singing.

    "Don't forget your manners when the anthem is played," sings SM on "Embassy Row," which is another stellar track from the new one. This line seemed to serve as a nice prelude to one of the many anthems from their first proper LP Slanted and Enchanted, "In the Mouth of a Desert."

    From there they went onto their newest anthem "Stereo" and into "Passat Dream," another Stairs number.

    "Type Slowly" and "Conduit for Sale" closed the show.

    The encore included "Sue Me, Jack," "Summer Babe," and "Date with Ikea," which I think might be about the theory that California will be a bunch of islands by the year 2007.

    I wish I was aware of how good this set was that night. Maybe my expectations were a bit high, but I certainly got my $10 worth. Even though I can't travel back in time to see this concert again, I am happy about the fact that I can listen to the album any time I want to. And the fact that the t-shirt I bought is tons cooler than any t-shirt I ever saw anyone wearing from the Use Your Illusion tour. Back