Pavement: Liberty Lunch, Austin, Texas

THERE AREN'T many Australian tours with Texas on the itinerary, but leave it to Pavement's Stephen Malkmus to figure that America's Western states are, like, on the way home to New York. Besides, the band hadn't played many U.S. dates since its stint as one of last summer's Monsters of Indie Rock. Lollapalooza was where Pavement found greatness, throwing off a past of thrilling but often frustratingly erratic live shows to become a — well, it sounds crazy, but the phrase "well-oiled machine" comes to mind, if it can be applied to such a scattered architecture of beatific melodies, sensual head-trips, and fractal grooves.