Last Friday, Pavement opened a run of summer shows at Oakland, CA’s Mosswood Park. The gig, which was a pre-party for the Mosswood Meltdown festival, was the influential indie-rock act’s first show since their set at Mexico City’s Hipnosis Festival this past November and kicked off another year of their unexpected regrouping.

The ensemble, who famously broke up in 1999, first reactivated in 2010 and then parted ways again after that campaign came to a close later in the year. They eventually announced another reunion, which was slated to take place in 2020, though those gigs were ultimately postponed due to the pandemic. However, Pavement did come back together in 2022 and have performed live every year since.

In another unexpected twist, in Oakland, Pavement debuted an abbreviated, tongue-in-cheek take on Led Zeppelin’s classic “Stairway to Heaven” and the band has offered up a variation on the cover at almost every show they played since then, including stops at Portland, OR’s Revolution Hall on July 18 and Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo Amphitheatre on July 19 and Chicago’s Salt Shed on June 22. (They didn’t play the Zeppelin favorite at Cleveland, OH’s Agora last night but Pavement did bust out the original “Greenlander,” a track they initially issued on the 1993 charity compilation Borne to Choose, for the first time since 1992.) So far, “Stairway” has been played after their original “Harness Your Hopes” each time, a once overlooked number that is currently enjoying a moment thanks to TikTok. The Seattle version of the tune even dipped into a bit of another classic-rock anthem, Neil Young & Crazy Horse’s “Down By the River.” With his more jammy solo act the Jicks, Pavement frontman Stephen Malkmus has been known to chuck in unexpected covers, often during his encore,

Pavement’s tour will continue at Philadelphia’s The Dell Music Center this evening for the Make The World Better event.