Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks/John Vanderslice @ Bowery Ballroom

It's the over-40 veteran rocker tour with 90s indie pioneer Stephen Malkmus backed by The Jicks and John Vanderslice. It goes to show you, you are never too old to keep it real.

The new Malkus material off of Real Emotion Trash is a guitar enthusiasts wet dream. Malk and Co. lay off the odd lyrics and focus on long jams inspired by the San Francisco experimental psych scene of the late 60s. Likewise, tonight's show (one of three in the area) was heavy into jarring guitars and free form musical interludes.

The set list (sans encore). For those who always ask, John V goes on at 9, S.M. is on at 10:30, over by midnight.

• Dragonfly Pie
• Gardenia
• Baby Carmon
• We Can't Help You
• Hopscotch Willie
• Real Emotional Trash
• Cold Son
• Post-Paint Boy
• Do Not Feed the Oyster
• Elmo Delmor
• Baltimore
• Church on White
• Encore: two of the songs were "Alright, Alright, Alight" by Mungo Jerry and Fear's "I Don't Care About You"

It's no surprise that Malkmus focuses on his new material from Real Emotional Trash. He's always been a forward thinking person and wants to keep the shows fresh rather than playing "Panties" or "JoJo's Jacket" for 100 shows straight. He's better known as a quirky songwriter than a skilled guitarist. Tonight, he showed why he should be better known as a guitar guy. The new album is geared towards guitars rather than indie pop hooks.

I've actually never seen these cats. Last time I saw Malkmus was probably 10 years ago. I've tried three times before but was blocked by a wedding, Keane and couldn't get tickets. I am kicking myself because his first album is brilliant, especially looking back at it now. When it was released in 2001, I think we were all in post-Pavement detox. It's actually a fun album with wild flourishes of sunny pop with catchy hooks mixed with his slacker-cum-screamer singing voice.

The good thing with this band is that they haven't repeated themselves. While you may prefer some over others, you can hear that each album has a different feel. This new is one definitely a California album.

I wonder what it's like being Stephen Malkmus -- getting a question every day about Pavement when you just want people to listen to your current sound. Then like tonight, getting audience request for Pavement songs that he probably hasn't played or thought of for 15 years. My guess was that one out of every 9 people at the show saw Pavement back in the day. I just want him to play anything he damn likes.

Also, he's Stephen Malkmus, indie rock daddy, yet I'd like to know how he still looks like he just stepped off the video for "Shady Lane." He still has that youthful appearance and that laid-back, Northwest attitude. I'm just glad he can scream into the microphone once in a while.

So it was a strong 90 minutes show from the gang. Janet Weiss on drums is pretty damn slick and Malkmus got show off his mad guitar skills.

John Vanderslice is name you probably hear or read of a lot, just don't know what he sounds like. He's a pretty straight-forward, Moog loving indie guy, who also has that youthful Malkmus glow. His sixth album, Emerald City, is out on Barsuk. He has a tight sound with lots keyboards and the occasion violin. He made his name before he was a solo-artists as a producer and engineer, so you hear he takes great care of his music. At the end of his set, he jumped onto the Bowery floor to do his closing song. I thought it was going to do "Wake Up", Arcade Fire style.