Pavement to hit St. Paul concrete

Fresh from playing its first reunion gig in New Zealand last night (actually "today" locally), Pavement has announced a handful of new U.S. tour dates, including one at St. Paul's pavement-cozy mega-hall the Roy Wilkins Auditorium on Sept. 12. For a band that often had trouble working out sound issues at top-notch venues in its heyday, Pavement couldn't have picked a worse place to play locally, but fans of this ilk did see mighty fine-sounding Wilco and Arcade Fire shows there. My fear of poor acoustics took a backseat to my giddiness, though, once I saw the set list from the opening show. Honestly, that's almost exactly what I would've played if I were sexy enough to be in the band.