I concluded probably the best summer concert series of my life seeing Pavement this past Friday night at the Mann Center in Philadelphia. I have gushed about the Mann before — I couldn’t be more excited that they had a string of great shows there. It’s a wonderful venue — a great tailgate area (you park in Fairmount Park), a unique building with fantastic sound, and not to mention they sell Yards Philly Pale Ale inside for a rather reasonable amount.  My first show ever that didn’t involve parental accompaniment was at the Mann on July 17, 1993 — it was the Steve Miller Band and when my friend Pat and I pulled into the lot in my parents’ station wagon, my life was forever changed. I still have the image of thousands of people tailgating, grilling, throwing Frisbees, and just having fun burned into my memory. I still remember thinking how awesome this was and how much fun everyone was having. However, the naiveté of my friend and I was priceless — we brought “hoagies and stogies,” which literally means we had submarine sandwiches and a pack of cheap cigars. No beer, no BBQ, no Frisbee. Things changed drastically the next year when we saw Steve Miller Band there. We had four friends join us and enough beer to weigh my parents’ station wagon down! Sadly, the year after that, the Sony E-Center (now I think it’s the Susquehanna Bank Center) opened in Camden and rock shows at the Mann all but ceased until this year. Which is a complete godsend because that faceless, new name every month, Live Nation operated dump in Camden is a joke — it’s  25 bucks to park, 10 bucks for a Miller Lite, and the sound sucks. Not that the Mann is all about tailgating, but it definitely enhances the experience. The staff is friendly, prices inside are reasonable, and you don’t have to buy the tickets through Live Nation. Best of all, everyone who joined me this year agreed with what I’ve been crowing about for years — that the Mann is the best venue in Philly.    

So we had our last hurrah for the summer there last Friday seeing Pavement — the aging slacker princes of indie rock. In the early and mid 90’s, when it was so cool to “not care,” Pavement was probably the coolest “trying not to be cool” band to not care about. Did that make any sense? All I know is, back then it was cool to like Pavement even though nobody cared what other people thought about you. But we did care, in fact, we cared so much that people cared and noticed that we didn’t care. (Seventeen years later, I am still confused about this myself.) Regardless, they haven’t been together in over ten years so it was a hipster hallelujah when the word got out that they were reuniting. Like me, I am sure every other mid-90’s indie rock fan in their 30s and 40s wet their Dockers when they saw this tour announcement. And I was pretty psyched that for the first time all summer, I wasn’t going to be the oldest dude there. As my friend Joe stated at the show after scanning the crowd, “we are probably right in the middle of the age scale.” 

The day was also highlighted with pointing out the people in the parking lot who were certainly up to no good and not there to see Pavement. For instance, the jittery guy with bad facial hair wearing a gold chain, a wife beater, those silky basketball shorts that kind of dance between the knee and ankle, and those awful crisp white sneakers that guidos wear. You know this guy is not there for the band — he isn’t going to brag that he has a limited edition 7” vinyl pressing of their first EP. And sure enough, as soon as dusk hit, he was filling up balloons with nitrous oxide, and judging by his own teeth, I am confident that he wasn’t a dentist.    

Pavement played great though — for a band that Beavis and Butthead once joked, “they need to try harder, I think these guys are just lazy” — they sounded tight and played a set list to my approval.  They were notorious for not playing well live so I was really surprised at how well they played. It was the icing on the cake for a fantastic summer of concerts that’s left me broke, tired, and surely even more damage to my liver.

I will end this week by stating how much my life can seemingly be huge highs and lows lately. To a point where it’s almost hilarious — Friday before Pavement I saw an e-mail that had some bad news. Saturday my girlfriend was mad at me understandably for my recent rash of concert and sporting event going, but then we found out we won 500 bucks from a church 50/50.  I go on a bad luck streak, but then something really good happens — or the opposite happens. I guess I can just take solace in the fact that I’m not the jittery guy selling laughing gas in a rock show parking lot.     

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