Watch Pavement play hilariously mangled ‘Stairway To Heaven’ cover in Oakland

Pavement returned to the road last night with a hilariously ramshackle cover of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Stairway To Heaven’ – watch footage below.

The legendary US indie band performed at the official pre-party for Mosswood Meltdown in Oakland, California yesterday (July 17), marking their first live show since appearing at Mexico City’s Hipnosis Festival in November.

Hosted by cult filmmaker John Waters, the event also featured sets from Wednesday and Vivian Girls ahead of the main festival this weekend, which is being headlined by Iggy Pop and Bikini Kill.

Midway through their set, Stephen Malkmus and co. followed ‘Harness Your Hopes’ with an unexpected partial rendition of the 1971 Zeppelin classic. Malkmus largely abandoned the original words in favour of half-improvised lyrics as he and Scott Kannberg loosely noodled their way through the track.

Check out fan-captured footage of the performance below.

The show came at the start of a run of US dates for the band, which continues tonight (July 18) at Portland’s Revolution Hall. Find the remaining dates below and visit here for tickets.

Pavement’s remaining 2026 US dates are: 

JULY 
18 – Portland, OR – Revolution Hall 
19 – Seattle, WA – Woodland Park Zoo 
21 – St. Paul, MN – Palace Theatre 
22 – Chicago, IL – The Salt Shed 
23 – Cleveland, OH – Agora Theatre 
24 – Philadelphia, PA – Dell Music Center 
25 – Richmond, VA – The National 
27 – Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium 
28 – Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium 

Last year, the band released their first newly recorded music in more than 25 years with a cover of Jim Pepper’s ‘Witchitai-To’.

The track was captured during rehearsals for their 2022 reunion tour, where it became a regular fixture in their setlists, and appeared on the soundtrack to Alex Ross Perry’s unconventional film Pavements.

The part-documentary, part-biopic project blended footage of the band preparing for their reunion tour with the creation of a Pavement museum exhibition, a jukebox musical titled Slanted! Enchanted! and a fictional Hollywood biopic.

Stranger Things star Joe Keery played Malkmus in the film-within-the-film, with Jason Schwartzman appearing as the band’s manager.

In a four-star review of Pavements, NME wrote: “In short, this is a thrillingly creative music documentary that serves as a loving tribute to the band and the sense of fun that Perry is having behind the camera is both palpable and infectious.”

Pavement initially reunited for an extensive run of shows in 2022, including dates across the UK, Ireland and Europe. Speaking to NME that year, the band reflected on the unexpected resurgence of ‘Harness Your Hopes’, which found a new audience after going viral on TikTok.

“It was a weird cultural thing, but by putting yourself out there, you have the opportunity for that to happen, even if you’re insecure or think your music is crap,” Malkmus said. “You go ahead and do it, and then the world sees you. That’s a pretty fun part of doing any art, but specifically ours.”