Pavement Announce 2023 Australian Headline Tour

Pavement have announced a six-date Australian headline tour for early 2023. 

One of the most popular and influential bands to come out of the American underground in the last three decades, Pavement will return to Australia for the first time since 2010 next February/March. 

Recently celebrating the 30^th anniversary of the seminal 1992 debut album Slanted and Enchanted, Pavement will play headline dates in Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Thirroul, Sydney and Melbourne. They will also appear at the 'musical jamboree' Tent Pole in Geelong and at Hobart's MONA FOMA. 

The band – Stephen Malkmus, Scott ‘Spiral Stairs’ Kannberg, Mark Ibold, Bob Nastanovich and Steve West – kicked off an extensive North American tour last week, so they should be in ripping form by the time they make it to Australia. 

Tickets for all shows go on sale to the general public on  Wednesday, 21 September (1 pm local time). There will be a Frontier Members Presale that kicks off Monday, 19 September at 12pm (local time). Head to frontiertouring.com/pavement for more details. 

In their decade-long early career, Pavement released five era-defining albums – Slanted And Enchanted (1992), Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (1994), Wowee Zowee (1995), Brighten The Corners (1997) and Terror Twilight (1999) – before disbanding in 1999. Hailed by music critic Robert Christgau as “the finest rock band of the ‘90s”, Pavement’s 2010 reunion saw them play four sold-out benefit shows in NYC’s Central Park, visit Australia, and top bills of festivals including Coachella, Reading & Leeds, Primavera Sound and Pitchfork.

 Pavement’s catalogue has seen a myriad of incarnations and bonus material unearthed, including career-spanning 2010 compilation Quarantine The Past, 2015 rarities collection A Secret History, Vol 1, deluxe editions of the band’s first four studio albums, and a 2019 picture disc commemorating the 25th anniversary of Wowee Zowee. Most recently, in April 2022 Matador Records dropped the deluxe reissue of Terror Twilight: Farewell Horizontal – an exhaustive 45-track compilation featuring the remastered album, B-sides, home demos, rehearsal tapes, live recordings, and even rough tracks from the band’s scrapped session at Sonic Youth’s Echo Canyon studio. April 2022 also saw the band’s first music video in 23 years, with 1999 b-side Harness Your Hopes’a viral and streaming hit, amassing 80+ million streams on Spotify to date and trending on TikTok. 

 In August 2022, Matador released a limited red/white/black splatter vinyl 30th-anniversary edition of debut full-length Slanted and Enchanted, as well as the 15-track Courting Shutdown Offers demo cassette (a replica of what the band used to share with labels).

Pavement 2023 Australian Headline Tour

Wednesday 22 February, Perth Concert Hall | Perth, WA

Friday 24 February, Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide, SA

Tuesday 28 February, Fortitude Music Hall | Brisbane, QLD

Wednesday 1 March, Anita’s Theatre | Thirroul, NSW

Thursday 2 March, Enmore Theatre | Sydney, NSW

Friday 3 March, Palais Theatre | Melbourne, VIC