Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Even if somehow the name Pavilions somehow has managed to pass you by, by the end of their slot as part of the support for Chicago’s Medina Lake, there could be no doubting the buzz that was circulating round the room at the end of their set, the way they were greeted and cheered during it and the way each member handled themselves throughout.
Like Buckle Tongue, the set list may have been on the small side but what they packed into the half a dozen live tracks were verging on the side of superb, riddled with sublime feeling and with a front man who was as captivating as the sound coming enticingly from all around him.
Pavilions opened up their set with Tidal and Doing A Jamie Lee and it seemed that the audience who had made their way to the Liverpool Academy on a grim evening was taking this band from The Wirral to its heart. They may have come to witness Medina Lake’s farewell to the U.K. but the ambition that emanated from each member, the sensitivity of their performance and garnished with the same type of power that all great hard-core groups have in their arsenal was intoxicating.
The moment you could sense that the band had scored a direct hit with the crowd was as they introduced their track MDR, the banter and awe that went from a certain section of the crowd as they demanded to know what MDR stood for was greeted with the coyest of smiles. No matter how much the young woman pleaded to know, the enigmatic nature of Tezz Roberts playfully showed that sometimes the less a fan knows the more they will enjoy the song, judging by the reaction, he wasn’t wrong.
With The Wave, Futures and the outrageously good Science And Gods culminating the set, it was with just with the tinge of regret that Pavilions, like Buckle Tongue didn’t have a greater length of time in which to really show what they were made of. However, a short set is sometimes enough to get the juices going and for the intrigue to be pricked and Pavilions gave everyone in the spectator area more than enough to know that they are going places.
Ian D. Hall