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Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks disappointingly pleasant in Austin

April 20, 2008, at La Zona Rosa

By Erik Adams
Published: April 22nd, 2008 | 9:35am

"I love you, Stephen!"

The shrill voice shot out from the sea of heads gathered to hear Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks.

"I love you, Stephen!"

It rose again a few songs later. Malkmus shaded his eyes with his hands, squinted and said something about how dark it looked beyond the stage.

"I love you, Stephen!"

Express anything that loudly, that desperately, that many times in the span of a two-hour set, and it's bound to sound forced, no matter how true it is. Though most likely unaware of it, the owner of the shrill voice was externalizing a mantra that has kept fans following Malkmus down the trail of album-oriented rock and into a big cave of boring.

"I love you, Stephen!"

Malkmus seems like he'd rather yell via his guitar these days, and the biggest moments on the Jicks' latest effort, Real Emotional Trash (Matador), are instrumental breaks. They outshine the tossed-off observations and stabs at stream-of-consciousness storytelling, even when Malkmus is tweaking his voice into singularly Malkmusian pitches. And so it went at La Zona Rosa, where the band spun out lengthy, overly-mannered takes on Real Emotional Trash and other post-Pavement works.

Speaking of now-defunct legendary acts, if you've got Janet Weiss keeping the beat, you should be able to make classic rock that's at least 1/3 as killer as The Woods. Sadly, Weiss seemed to have brought along the heaviness of Sleater-Kinney's swan song, but none of the snarl.

"I love you, Stephen!"

I love you, Stephen.

It's painful to watch a great artist settling into passed-prime mediocrity. Objectively, this was a good show — decent performances of decent songs by an above-decent band. Aside from guitarist-keyboardist Mike Clark's non-comical quips, some off-putting Portland v. Austin vibes, and the moment Malkmus almost killed his splintering Les Paul, it was a pleasant experience. But nobody wants "pleasant" from artists who helped shape the last two decades of rocknroll.

"I love you, Stephen!"

I love you, Stephen.

There's something complacent about SM circa 2008: Long jams, minimal distinction between songs, and golf shirts. (A thought for another time: Might Malkmus have taken this direction because so many new rockers are trying to be him circa 1994?) We take the stupid shouts back and we cram them down inside ourselves and we curse our hero for changing, though we curse ourselves more for being unable to change with him. He deserves credit for moving forward and not just regurgitating Pavement songs night after night, but those untouched songs are proof that he's capable of better.

I love you, Stephen.

And one day this will happen to the Jicks' openers and Portland contemporaries the Joggers, should they be so preserved by the saints of independent rock longevity. While they still smell a bit like 2003 (closing track "Open C" was quite the angular work out), the Joggers have found the comfortable space between math rock precision and post-punk groove. Thankfully, four-part is allowed to live in that space as well. The Joggers could teach the Jicks a thing or two about economic noodling.