Wowee Zowee

In his running series of self-admitted "bad ideas," Joon Kim finally put on another cover show.

The last one, a salty tribute to Guided by Voices, had been so many months ago that some of us had given up hope that there'd ever be another one. When it was finally announced as a tribute to Pavement, it became doubly enticing when more than one musician referred to it as sure to be a train wreck.

Just so you know, I'm talking about the musicians who were playing the show saying that.

In typical musician fashion, most left learning Pavement songs until the last week before the show and had minimal practices. Which was fine because the whole evening was great fun and for the Pavement-obsessed (and there was a good-sized contingent of them) as well as plain old music lovers, it was quite a treat to hear.

Nelly Kate and Landis Wine of White Laces got things off to a fine start doing two songs beautifully, each doing lead vocal on one. They admitted that they were breaking the first rule of a Pavement cover show by playing a cover and not a true Pavement song.

As it turned out, they were only the first of several to do so.

Dave Watkins and his dulcitar took up the challenge next, throwing in a cover of "No More Kings" and inviting the audience to make disgruntled crowd noises. Instead, the crowd ate it up.

It was my first time seeing The Milkstains, despite how often they play out and having been told I'd like them. "Alright, we're going to try and do some Pavement songs or at least remember the lyrics," the lead singer said. Doing only two songs, they succeeded admirably and friends were right; I really liked their surf rock sound.

Snowy Owls did five songs so well that there was no doubt that leader Matt was a Pavement fan. They'd also had multiple practices and sounded terrific.

Climbers took forever to get started and did two songs before adding in Willis on drums. Seems he was a last minute addition to the band's line-up tonight, having learned the song in the bathroom just beforehand.

A pro, he made their last song the best of the set.

The crowd loved it when Kyle and Brandi of Diamond Center took the stage because they were in costume. Kyle, in a sparkly two-piece dress and necklace looked particularly fetching drag-like except for his monumental beard and fur hat with flaps. Brandi's pope hat and glitter make up couldn't compete. After some technical difficulties, Kyle sang a couple of songs before making a promise.

"We're playing a show here on Thursday and it won't sound anything like this," he promised. A guy who'd never seen them before asked afterwards if that had been music they'd played. If he only knew them in their usual style, he'd be amazed.

Joon's ever-changing band Adah played last with Joon and his violin in front of the stage and the rest of the band on it. They rocked it hard, about driving the audience crazy with "Cut Your Hair," a song even non-fans might know.

And there were plenty of them there, too. A musician friend asked me if I knew about Pavement when he came in. Well, duh. Let's just say I was around when they formed in '89 and when they disbanded in '99. But his girlfriend, whom he'd brought with him, had never heard of them. Another friend told me he hated Pavement but came to support his friends.

But there was a core group who sang along with every single word to every song, recognizing each one by the first notes. That's the beauty of a well-chosen cover show. Casual fans get to see a bunch of bands play and uber-fans get to hear live versions they might never otherwise hear.

Toward the end, Joon took suggestions for the next event's band to be covered. Someone even yelled out my idea: Yo la Tengo. And since they're known for an enormous repertoire of cover songs, both live and on records, it could be a cover show of covers songs done by YLT and performed by local musicians.

A "hall of mirrors" tribute to Yo la Tengo; can't you just see it? Well if you can, it won't be anytime soon. These things happen on musician time.

With a nod to another favorite, I would suggest waiting with a glacier's patience.