“It’s turning!” shouts a bloke within the crowd, pointing on the big Lovell Telescope overlooking the primary stage, which has slowly began to revolve in direction of us as Pavement play the sadly majestic “Right here”. It’s exhausting to think about the band instigating such a chunk of theatre – not like some earlier Bluedot headliners, Pavement should not ones for large cosmic gestures – however it nonetheless confers a way of grandeur on the event. 31 years after their first UK present, these perennial mid-afternoon underdogs lastly really feel like bona fide competition headliners.

Final yr at Primavera Porto, Pavement regarded a tad uneasy with their new bill-topping standing, not helped by a setlist that leaned too closely on later, slower materials. This time they get it completely spot-on, from Bob Nastanovich enthusiastically bashing his woodblock to the opening “Silence Child” to the ultimate crunching chords of “Minimize Your Hair”. In between, they please everybody from the hardcore who’ve been right here since “Field Elder” to those that’ve discovered their solution to Pavement far more just lately by way of Spotify ghost hit “Harness Your Hopes”. The set plots an ideal course between verbose singalongs, bursts of joyful anarchy and wracked, tender moments resembling “Starlings Of The Slipstream”, for which swooping flocks of birds are projected throughout the face of the Lovell Telescope.

On-stage, it’s not simply Nastanovich having enjoyable both. Spiral Stairs performs and sings “Kennel District” like he’s simply scored the winner at Previous Trafford, which amuses even the in any other case inscrutable Stephen Malkmus. Over his shoulder, new sixth member Rebecca Cole bobs alongside, bringing good vibes in addition to bolstering the sound. Mogwai’s Stuart Braithwaite provides bonus guitar heft to “Fin” earlier than just a few randoms gatecrash the stage to shake maracas to “Two States”. And “Grounded” sounds mightier than it’s ever accomplished, its excoriation of bourgeois indifference solely rising angrier over time.

At a Wowee Zowee listening get together earlier within the day within the Notes tent, the band seemed to be having fun with one another’s firm, eagerly including to the Pavement trivia mountain by revealing that Trey Anastasio of Phish actually loves the solo in “Rattled By The Rush”, and that Spiral Stairs’ mum taught Chris Isaak at college (“He was a brat!”). However when it got here to accounting for his or her continued reputation, particularly amongst these barely out of the womb first time round, they regarded charmingly befuddled. “Good songs?” stated Malkmus, hopefully. “And take a look at us!”

However we can assist with that. Not many bands since Pavement have been capable of carve out such a definite place within the firmament, in love with rock music however allergic to all of its cliches, brandishing persistently catchy songs whose apparently daft and cryptic lyrics turn into extra profound over time.

After this, there’s simply Galway and Reykjavik, a pair extra US competition dates and a closing residency in Brooklyn earlier than all of them return to their solo tasks, day jobs and racecourse quests. Malkmus has constantly dominated out the thought of penning new Pavement materials, so it might be a protracted whereas earlier than we see them collectively once more. Their final reunion in 2010 fizzled out in acrimony however right here, a minimum of, they depart with the triumph they deserve.