Pavement - The Cat’s Cradle, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, July 28, 1996

Pavement - The Cat’s Cradle, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, July 28, 1996Pavement is stomping out the footlights at the Ryman tonight — but 30 years ago this summer, the band was holed up in Mitch Easter’s Piedmont Triad Studio, recording what would become the band’s fourth studio album, Brighten the Corners. To blow off steam during the sessions, Malkmus and Co. booked a one-off gig at The Cat’s Cradle in nearby Chapel Hill, where they treated the crowd to a wild set, made up largely of brand new tunes. This is a fascinating tape because the BtC songs (and a wealth of outtakes/b-sides) are for the most part complete musically, but SM has yet to finalize the lyrics, and spends the show spitting out (probably ad-libbed) verses over the now-familiar structures and melodies. I think most of it is obscure sports references; the band must’ve been watching the Atlanta Olympics during downtime. Things get dark from time to time — Steve confesses to cheating at Scrabble during an embryonic…