Stephen Malkmus, shown here at the 2010 Pitchfork Music Festival, performed at Baltimore’s Rams Head Live on Thursday night. Photo by Francis Chung.
As he did while fronting Pavement during their 2010 reunion tour, Stephen Malkmus once again passed over D.C. in favor of Maryland, this time opting for an appearance at Baltimore’s Rams Head Live on Thursday night. Playing to considerably less fanfare than last year, when he and his former cohorts headlined festivals and sold out iconic venues worldwide, the 45-year-old singer/guitarist led his current backing group, The Jicks, though a satisfying 18-song set during which he continued to step back out from the considerable shadow cast by his much-celebrated, and now re-retired, other band.
Indeed, with the August release of his Beck-produced 5th LP Mirror Traffic, Malkmus reached a significant career milestone, having now recorded as many albums as a solo artist as he did with Pavement. Thursday’s set list drew heavily from the latest record, beginning with the breezy “Gorgeous Georgie”, which featured some nifty slide-guitar work by Malkmus. The irresistibly jaunty verses of “Forever 28” sounded like an indie-rock homage to ELO’s “Mr. Blue Sky”, while the new single “Tigers” was a brilliant pop gem in its own right, punctuated with incandescent guitar melodies and an infectious hook
Though the tighter new material generally mitigates the jam-band tendencies that characterized (or, some Slanted and Enchanted devotees might say, marred) Malkmus’ previous recordings with The Jicks, the frontman cut loose on songs like “Spazz” to show off some of the dexterous guitar flourishes that at this point seem an essential part of his musical personality. On Pig Lib’s terrific “Animal Midnight”, unabashedly classic-rock riffs were unleashed from a Guild S-100, and “Senator” concluded with an interesting bit of improvisation, Malkmus interweaving noisy, freewheeling runs with melodies cut-and-pasted from Simon and Garfunkel’s “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy.)”
Given the Charm City setting, speculation abounded as to whether or not Malkmus and The Jicks would play “Baltimore”, the standout track from 2008’s Real Emotional Trash. One particularly boisterous male fan repeatedly cried out for it as if he was calling for a keg stand at a frat party, leading bassist Joanna Bolme to opine that “I don’t think you could handle that one.” “We know we’re in Baltimore,” Malkmus deadpanned. “We’re not going to play that.” Yet, a few songs later — right after thanking the Orioles for helping eliminate the Red Sox from playoff contention the previous night — Malkmus launched his band into the psych-rock epic, dedicating it to Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco, and letting fly a few (possibly ironic) fist pumps during the song’s climactic line: “I’m in love with a soldier from Baltimore!”
Late in the set came an impassioned cover of “Love Is Like Oxygen” by 1970s British glam-rockers Sweet, Malkmus giving his all as his voice strained towards a falsetto pitch. Mirror Traffic’s languid “No One Is (As I Are Be)” kicked off the encore before the band delved back into Malkmus’ eponymous 2001 solo debut for the catchy ode to Yul Brynner, “Jo Jo’s Jacket”. The concert ended in rousing fashion with an unexpected cover of the rock standard “Wild Thing”, Malkmus adding a string of lyrical non sequiturs to the song’s anthemic riffs.
