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Two weeks after the fact, I have decided to post a l’il review of my most hotly anticipated Pitchfork performance:

Now, in all fairness, this was billed as “Stephen Malkmus” without any mention of The Jicks, but I just assumed he’d bring along the back up band for a show in front of 15000+ people. Even though it was a wishful, doubted hope, I was holding on to an iota of anticipation that I might even get to see Janet Weiss smack some skin.

But when you assume…

So when he walked on stage with nothing but an acoustic guitar I was a bit surprised. “OK” I thought, “We’ll see where he goes with this.” Admittedly, Malkmus’ breezy, carefree nature is a large part of his appeal, but he just didn’t seem to give a fuck. Sure, the show featured a reunion of sorts but there had clearly been no rehersal. Also Malkmus plays great, but his is a style more suited to electric than acoustic guitar, and his solos kept tripping over his cumbersomly high set strings. (Note: Just ’cause you’re playing solo does NOT mean you need to play acoustic.)

Whne he thought he’d finished the set he was informed he’d only played about half of his contracted time. I guess he hadn’t bothered to sum up his set list ahead of time. Shocking.

The whole performance is pretty well summed up by the quote from the hillariously intrusive inteview by Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox when Malkmus answers the question “Are you on tour?” with “No, I’m on vacation…that’s why I’m kinda tan.”

Oh well, I’m still terribly excited to hear that next Malkmus & The Jicks effort. I’ll probably buy it the day it comes out. We’re all suckers for Stephen & he knows it. So maybe it’s our fault for letting him get away with it again & again.

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