930 Forums
=> GENERAL DISCUSSION => Topic started by: ratioci nation on September 08, 2004, 02:56:00 pm
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Yay, I finally get to do this. So who will be at the show Saturday? Anybody going to the Philly show Friday as well?
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I'll be at the DC show.
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I'll be there Saturday.
Looks like it finally sold out.
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I'll be there Saturday. In fact, I'm in the midst of deciding whether or not to go to an afternoon DC United game that day, or just save all my energy for the glorious and inspired combo of Tommy Keene and Pollard!
Speaking of, if we get there about 9:00, think we'll get pretty good mid-floor placement? (I don't have the patience to get there early enough to be up front...)
I'm meeting up with friends (woo-hoo, a dozen of us) at the Saloon at 7:30 for dinner and beer, beer, beer. Stop by if you get a chance!
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Originally posted by Bags:
I'll be there Saturday. In fact, I'm in the midst of deciding whether or not to go to an afternoon DC United game that day, or just save all my energy for the glorious and inspired combo of Tommy Keene and Pollard!
Speaking of, if we get there about 9:00, think we'll get pretty good mid-floor placement? (I don't have the patience to get there early enough to be up front...)
don't know about mid floor, but getting up front really is not that hard, go up the side, then once everybody starts moving around it is easy enough to jump in, come carrying beer, somebody will let you in
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Originally posted by pollard:
it is easy enough to jump in, come carrying beer, somebody will let you in
I will be carrying beer, to consume of course! At some point I'm sure I'll go up for a bit. We had a great time at the Bowery hangin' in the middle and whooping it up. Went up front for a while, though, and it was a blast. And I ran into our own pollard! :D
Actually, I want to be close up for Tommy Keene...probably won't have oodles of competition except for those folks waiting for GBV up at the barrier...
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Here
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i'll be there ... i have it on pretty good authority that the band is scheduled to go on at 11:15 and is scheduled to finish at ... 2:15. now maybe the club is giving them that much time and they won't necessarily fill it, but it's a saturday nite on the farewell tour and the rolling rocks will surely be flowing, so i wouldn't put it past bob to go all phish on us. we could be looking at a 50-60 song set, good lord.
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Originally posted by BookerT:
i'll be there ... i have it on pretty good authority that the band is scheduled to go on at 11:15 and is scheduled to finish at ... 2:15. now maybe the club is giving them that much time and they won't necessarily fill it, but it's a saturday nite on the farewell tour and the rolling rocks will surely be flowing, so i wouldn't put it past bob to go all phish on us. we could be looking at a 50-60 song set, good lord.
going all phish on us would be a 3 hour set of 5 songs :D
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I wont be in the front or mid floor, I'll be so far back it'll seem like I'm Arlington on my couch watching Hellraiser 6........Actually that'll probably where I'll be and what I'll be doing.
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God damn, Rob_Gee, I have the same plans. Are you sure you're not my wife?
Originally posted by Rob_Gee:
I wont be in the front or mid floor, I'll be so far back it'll seem like I'm Arlington on my couch watching Hellraiser 6........Actually that'll probably where I'll be and what I'll be doing.
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i'll be there. . .3 hours? that's it? come on, it's their final tour, surely they could play longer than that. 3 hours is par for the course with them.
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Originally posted by Rhett Miller:
God damn, Rob_Gee, I have the same plans. Are you sure you're not my wife?
I'm sure there will be some good responses to this one. :roll:
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I'll be at the show! It's my first and last GbV show.
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I'm in with the Bags dirty dozen!
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I'm trying to go. I got tickets, but one of my best friends is moving to Berlin on Monday and there's a going away party for him on Saturday so I'm just gonna try to catch as much of the show as I can. Hopefully they'll go on late as was mentioned in this thread.
I stopped by my friends place last night cuz he said he had a bag of stuff for me before he moved. One of the items was a flyer advertising and in-store by the Ramones in '78 or '79 at Penguin Feather Records in Bailey's Crossroads. The flyer is signed by all four original Ramones...a pretty cool item.
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I'll be there. First and last GBV show. And since none of my friends listen to anything good, I'll likely end up unloading my extra ticket. Looking forward to it though.
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Originally posted by tooms:
I'm in with the Bags dirty dozen!
Be careful Tooms, Rhett may start calling you a Prada-wearing gay guy. :D
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can't wait for saturday...i'm not going to the philly show (blew my wad on tix for chi-town on NYE). will anyone have a chance to post the setlist from Fri night prior to the 9:30 gig? that would be fan-f'in-tastic. my peeps and i are planning a pre-show pit-stop at the saloon to be followed by copious amounts of beer at the 9:30. see you drunkards on saturday.
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Originally posted by joz:
can't wait for saturday...i'm not going to the philly show (blew my wad on tix for chi-town on NYE). will anyone have a chance to post the setlist from Fri night prior to the 9:30 gig? that would be fan-f'in-tastic. my peeps and i are planning a pre-show pit-stop at the saloon to be followed by copious amounts of beer at the 9:30. see you drunkards on saturday.
i doubt i will have time to post the setlist or have the setlist, way too long of a list to remember, www.gbvdb.com (http://www.gbvdb.com) may have it on saturday, I believe the boston show is tonight so check for that setlist tomorrow
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Originally posted by joz:
my peeps and i are planning a pre-show pit-stop at the saloon to be followed by copious amounts of beer at the 9:30.
My plan exactly as well! See you at either place; I'll be in a group of about 10 at the Saloon, and one of us will be wearing an Amoeba shirt, I just feel it... ;)
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Originally posted by Bags:
Originally posted by joz:
my peeps and i are planning a pre-show pit-stop at the saloon to be followed by copious amounts of beer at the 9:30.
My plan exactly as well! See you at either place; I'll be in a group of about 10 at the Saloon, and one of us will be wearing an Amoeba shirt, I just feel it... ;) [/b]
i'll check gbvdb.com for the setlists...thanks, pollard. i'm really hoping they pull out some old stuff. i'd love to hear red men and their wives, under the neptune/mesh gear fox and if we wait. i haven't seen them do hot freaks for a while either so that would be a treat.
well, bags, my group has quickly dwindled from 7 to a measly 3; four of my lazy friends didn't get of their procrastinating asses to buy tix before they sold out. i couldn't tell you what any of us would be wearing but my husband usually stands out with his david-lynch-ish hair...he also has a gbv tattoo on his shoulder but you wouldn't see it unless he's wearing a muscle shirt (this is most improbable). i'll likely have my white/red diesel sneaks on.
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i'm probably in... and with a 3 hour set looming i'd kinda wish they had vip la-z-boy chairs in the coat rack area to sit in ;) designed by todd oldham of course
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Originally posted by joz:
i'll check gbvdb.com for the setlists...thanks, pollard. i'm really hoping they pull out some old stuff. i'd love to hear red men and their wives, under the neptune/mesh gear fox and if we wait. i haven't seen them do hot freaks for a while either so that would be a treat.
they played a couple rare old tracks in new york on 8/19, and I will guess that they will finish all of the shows on this tour with Murder Charge
New York Set List (http://gbvdb.com/album.asp?albumid=1845)
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i hope they play official ironman rally song. . i haven't heard that song live since they toured for that album. . .i seem to miss all the shows they play it at. some old stuff would indeed be excellent.
i shall commence the drinking sometime around 3 pm on saturday afternoon, followed by several burgers cooked on the grill that's on the roof of my apartment building, blasting gbv all day long.
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Well for all your sakes, I sure hope that they are better than the night they were on Penn. Ave. last year, that was horrendous.
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looks like they closed a june show in iowa city with wild horses and baba o'reilly. i highly doubt they would end their "electrifying conclusion" sets with two covers but i would like to hear them do wild horses...they closed all the shows i saw in 2001/2002 with baba o'reilly, which was always well-received.
for such a prolific band, i sincerely hope they mix up the setlists for each venue, especially for the diehard fans that will end up seeing them multiple times on this tour. they should pull out a couple of gems for each show.
does anyone remember the jan 14th, 2000, show at the 9:30? it was my first gbv show and, BONUS, it was my birthday. bob went off stage from the first encore singing the bop-bop-bada-da-da-bop part from 'a big fan of the pigpen' and came back for the second still singing. they audience sang it over-and-over as they waited for them to come back out. sad that my last gbv concert (NYE this year) will be two weeks shy of exactly 5 years since i first saw them live.
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Originally posted by Rob_Gee:
Well for all your sakes, I sure hope that they are better than the night they were on Penn. Ave. last year, that was horrendous.
the live on penn performace was definitely NOT the show upon which to judge the band's live act. the crowd was lame and the setting not at all conducive to the gbv "club is open" vibe. plus, it was hot as balls because of the humidity; the sky was ready to burst with precipitation, and it did just after their set.
their setlist was heavy on the radio-friendly pop...a safe bet for the band considering they were playing to a largely gbv-naive audience. that was not a show for the fans in the least.
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Originally posted by joz:
does anyone remember the jan 14th, 2000, show at the 9:30? it was my first gbv show and, BONUS, it was my birthday. bob went off stage from the first encore singing the bop-bop-bada-da-da-bop part from 'a big fan of the pigpen' and came back for the second still singing. they audience sang it over-and-over as they waited for them to come back out. sad that my last gbv concert (NYE this year) will be two weeks shy of exactly 5 years since i first saw them live.
you know, me and some friends went to that show and it was also on a friend's birthday, and bob kept dropping the mic, and other's would pick it up and yell something into it before giving it back to bob. . .well, my friend finally got it and wished herself a happy birthday. pretty funny.
i too will be at the new year's eve show. . .i first saw them in 95 at SXSW
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Originally posted by Venerable Bede:
i too will be at the new year's eve show. . .i first saw them in 95 at SXSW
'95...wow. where are you staying in chicago over new year's? we heard there were rooms set aside by the metro at the hilton for people going to the shows but we went with the westin which is closer to the venue.
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Originally posted by joz:
Originally posted by Venerable Bede:
i too will be at the new year's eve show. . .i first saw them in 95 at SXSW
'95...wow. where are you staying in chicago over new year's? we heard there were rooms set aside by the metro at the hilton for people going to the shows but we went with the westin which is closer to the venue. [/b]
well, fiancee is from chicago, so we'll probably just end up staying with her family. but we might just work on getting a hotel somewhere.
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wouldn't miss it
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Does your girlfriend mind being called "the fiancee'"? Somebody in my family cringes every time she reads you using that term...
Originally posted by Venerable Bede:
Originally posted by joz:
Originally posted by Venerable Bede:
i too will be at the new year's eve show. . .i first saw them in 95 at SXSW
'95...wow. where are you staying in chicago over new year's? we heard there were rooms set aside by the metro at the hilton for people going to the shows but we went with the westin which is closer to the venue. [/b]
well, fiancee is from chicago, so we'll probably just end up staying with her family. but we might just work on getting a hotel somewhere. [/b]
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somebody's pictures from the boston show
http://www.driki.org/images/shows/gbv-boston/ (http://www.driki.org/images/shows/gbv-boston/)
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according to a show report I just read, fans of Under the Bushes will be happy, they played one of Bede's favorite songs live for the first time ever last night, not sure if I should ruin the surprise
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Looks like I'll be going
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i'm in look for the dorky dude wearing a foo fighters t-shirt, in honor of bags of course! might even bring a lawn chair :D
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Originally posted by pollard:
somebody's pictures from the boston show
http://www.driki.org/images/shows/gbv-boston/ (http://www.driki.org/images/shows/gbv-boston/)
Holy cow. He's drinking whiskey like it's a Budweiser. Whoa nelly....
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Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
i'm in look for the dorky dude wearing a foo fighters t-shirt, in honor of bags of course! might even bring a lawn chair :D
YEAH Kosmo! ;) If only I had a Shazam or Cosmic Rough Riders t-shirt...
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He must lead a very happy life.
Originally posted by Bags:
Holy cow. He's drinking whiskey like it's a Budweiser. Whoa nelly....
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My wife took a look at the GBV picture in the paper today and said, "No wonder why they never got more popular. Every guy in the band is ugly."
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I'm in. Like seeing they they opened with Sad If I Lost It at the Pier 54 show. That's one of my favorite GBV songs. Would love a marathon, Allmans-like show. This will be my 4th GBV show, including the Live at Penn (which I enjoyed enough, particularly because of the price and the ease of getting up front).
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Originally posted by Bags:
Originally posted by pollard:
somebody's pictures from the boston show
http://www.driki.org/images/shows/gbv-boston/ (http://www.driki.org/images/shows/gbv-boston/)
Holy cow. He's drinking whiskey like it's a Budweiser. Whoa nelly.... [/b]
just wait. . .
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<img src="http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/images/I8691-2004Sep09" alt=" - " />
Guided By His Own Voice (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8734-2004Sep9.html)
By Richard Harrington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 10, 2004; Page WE06
JUST A YEAR AGO, Robert Pollard was talking about how, two decades in, Guided by Voices was jelling, how good the chemistry was with what he considered the band's best lineup, how the shows were stronger than ever.
But Pollard, the creative fulcrum of the critically acclaimed band -- GBV has always been his songs, his voice, his vision -- also conceded he didn't know how much longer he could continue.
Turned out to be about a year.
Which is how "Half Smiles of the Decomposed" became GBV's 20-somethingish and final album. The band -- Doug Gillard, Nate Farley, Chris Slusarenko and Kevin March -- didn't find out until it was finished.
Now comes the Electrifying Conclusion -- the name taken from an old lyric for GBV's farewell tour.
"There are a lot of people who are sad, who think it's over," Pollard says from his Dayton, Ohio, home a week before the 25-date tour is to kick off in Boston (it stops at the 9:30 club Saturday).
But, he explains, "it's just another phase. I'm doing this to get back to ground zero and challenge myself, get back in the studio so I can play more guitar and do more things. It got to the point where the band was so good it could pull off anything, and so I've become complacent. I just want to get back and be a little more experimental and adventurous in the studio. To me, it's exciting; it's not going to change drastically. It's going to be different, but it's still going to be my dream domain or whatever it is that comes from my head.
"I think it's even going to be more interesting because I felt cornered with GBV," Pollard adds. "I painted myself into a corner, and I didn't know how to get out or where to take it."
That corner was originally situated in a Dayton basement where Pollard's Sunday afternoon hobby jam with friends began to coalesce in 1983. The idea was to give the grade school teacher a forum for quirky songs that melded abstract, whimsical lyricism, classic pop melodies and crunching power chords. Three years later, GBV pressed 500 copies of its first EP, "Forever Since Breakfast," mostly for their families and friends. And they ended a brief run as a live band.
"We were doing shows in Dayton from 1983 to 1986, and a few regional club shows," Pollard recalls. "I played guitar in the band at the time, and we might have 30 people and half of them were our relatives, those kinds of shows. One of the first shows we ever played in Columbus, Nick Nolte came -- they were filming 'Teachers' there. Weirdly enough, that's the biggest star that's ever come to one of our shows."
Over the next decade, the prolific Pollard released a dozen or so self-pressed GBV EPs and albums with such whimsical titles as "Static Airplane Jive," "Fast Japanese Spin Cycle," "Same Place the Fly Got Smashed" and "Clown Prince of the Menthol Trailer." Few of the pressings were for more than 500 copies, yet the band began to build a little buzz, particularly with 1994's "Bee Thousand," which most fans consider GBV's masterpiece and which inspired an unlikely bidding war between Warner Bros. and Matador Records. Matador won.
"We didn't start touring until after 'Bee Thousand,' " says Pollard, who for a year juggled playing music at night and teaching fourth-graders by day. By the time he decided to concentrate on music full time, Pollard was already 37, not exactly a good starting position in a youth-obsessed medium that he wasn't necessarily dedicated to in the first place.
"I was trying to break the band up with [1992's] 'Propeller,' before we even started playing shows," Pollard admits. "Then the labels wanted us and we broke; there was some MTV stuff going on, then it became real and it became interesting. We were under the microscope, and people were analyzing us.
"For me, one of the reasons that I made the decision to break it up for real this time is GBV has gotten to be a bit too analytical. There's too much read into it, there's too much evaluation, too much comparison of this album with the last one and everyone with 'Bee Thousand' -- 'It's your masterpiece!'
"It's nice that you would have a masterpiece, I guess, but that's not how I work. I write songs and we throw them together, we practice them and we go do them. And that's it and we go on to the next thing. For instance, I have my first post-GBV solo album ready -- it's a double album -- so I always have an album finished before the other one comes out. To me, it's about having fun and entertaining yourself and others if you can, not about whether this album is as good as that one. They're all different."
Or not. "Half Songs of the Decomposed" is not a startling departure from recent albums, a typically eclectic mix of the four P's of rock (pop, punk, prog and psychedelic) that are as essential to Pollard the musician as the three R's were to Pollard the teacher. There are the gorgeous melodies of "A Second Spurt of Growth," "Window of My World" and "Girls of Wild Strawberries"; the energized outings "Sing for Your Meat" and a Whoish "Gonna Never Have to Die"; and prog-rockers like "Everybody Thinks I'm a Raincloud (When I'm Not Looking)" and "(S)mothering and Coaching." Pollard's penchant for brevity remains intact, with more than half the songs clocking in under three minutes.
Pollard had previously said that when he made a record he was totally satisfied with as befitting a finale, it would be just that. "After I listened to ['Half Smile'], it had kind of a sad, melancholy but uplifting feel to it, and it felt like a fitting wrap-up and at that point I made the decision."
But, he adds, there were a couple of other factors in the timing of the split.
"I'd been going through this huge box of unmarked cassettes that I have," he explains. "I should be more organized, but the way that I write, I write fragments of songs, song ideas and tunes to the point of exhaustion, and then I'll go back and listen to what I have and immediately discard things that I don't want to use or things that I don't think fit, and then work on the songs that I do want to use.
"That process has left this huge box of cassettes with song ideas, so I've been going through the box and burning them to CDs so I can be more organized. And I've found so many really good songs and song ideas that in my opinion now should have been on record."
The box contains tapes dating back to 1978, songs that Pollard says "were more personal to me and didn't feel like they were particular GBV-lineup-type songs." Twenty-six of them were recorded with producer Todd Tobias for release early next year. You can also expect what will be Pollard's first-ever solo tour: He's only ever done one show with his name on the marquee, "way before anyone cared, in Columbus with [former GBV member] Greg Demos and New Creatures, which backed me up. I'm going to still tour, until I feel it's ridiculous up there. And for each album that I do, I can round up different people each time."
Obviously, there's no quit yet in Pollard, who jokes that "people are being very nice to me, like I'm going away!"
He notes his late bloom, admitting that "had we started and gotten some exposure earlier, like in my early twenties, I don't know if I'd be ready to hang it up yet. I'm going to be 47 years old, my hair is gray -- to me it makes a little more sense to go under my own name. It seems a little bit more mature decision; there's more integrity in doing that."
Pollard also seems eager to challenge himself in the studio, much the way he did after "Forever Since Breakfast," which was recorded in a professional studio "with unsympathetic engineers and in-house producers who had no idea what I wanted, and I had no idea what I wanted. I was completely unhappy with it, but since we were financing it ourselves and no one was listening but us, I said, 'I'm going to put whatever I want on the record, I don't care how it's recorded or what it sounds like, as long as I like it.' "
What evolved on subsequent albums were live jams, instrumentals, songlets and song snippets, as well as fully realized, coherent tracks.
"That became our signature," Pollard notes. "But I did it simply because I knew no one was listening but myself, and I wanted to make records that made me happy. Luckily for us, we fit into this movement at the time they were calling lo-fi. Some people were saying we were the kings, the pioneers of lo-fi, and at the time I didn't know what they were talking about. But then I guess it was true because 'Devil Between My Toes,' which was 1987, preceded Sebadoh's [1989 album] 'The Freed Man,' which many people considered the first album of that movement."
It took a while -- though not long -- for GB to find its V, says Pollard, an avowed student of rock history.
"When we first started, I thought we sounded too much like other bands," he explains. "It got to the point where I listened to so much music from the last 30 to 40 years, and so many different genres, that they all became a part of what I do. We kind of threw them in a pot and mixed them together until we had our own distinct sound. There's so much that's gone into it that we do have an original sound, where you can almost always tell, 'That's by Guided By Voices.' It has been the most difficult thing to do."
As is analyzing Pollard's lyrics, which are often fragmentary and enigmatic.
"It's for the listener to take whatever he or she wants to be meaningful or entertaining or whatever can help," Pollard explains, sort of. "To me, it's like a dream domain. There's obvious symbolism, things that mean things and other things that don't, and sometimes they tie together and sometimes they don't. My favorite director is David Lynch, and I don't understand what's going on most of the time, but to me it's uplifting and scary. And I enjoy that rather than when things are right in your face literally and easy to understand. I appreciate that in lyrics, and I think the most inspirational and influential lyricists to me have been people who operate that way, like John Lennon and Marc Bolan and David Bowie, where you didn't always need to know what was going on with what they were saying, and I don't think they did for the most part, either. Sometimes you feel like saying something, other times you don't."
Over the years, the lo-fi label became something of a millstone for GBV, particularly after former Cars driver Ric Ocasek produced their 1999 album, "Do the Collapse." Shouts of sellout were heard.
"We'd exasperated all the techniques we could do in a basement," Pollard answers, adding that GBV's lo-fi approach was dictated by their severely limited financial resources, a problem that lifted on their two albums for mini-major TVT. "You can only move your washers and dryer around and put microphones in them and drop amps to make different sounds on a four-track so much, and I thought we'd done all we could do. At the time, some people were saying, 'Okay, we've heard the lo-fi thing and we're getting sick of it,' so we decided to move on. And then some of the same people said, 'Well, now we miss the old lo-fi stuff.'
"That was the point at which I realized we can only please ourselves," Pollard says. "For the most part the people that have stuck with GBV are the people who realized it's all about the songs anyway, because even when we were doing lo-fi recording on four track, you realized you still had to have songs or it's not going to work."
Another millstone: GBV's reputation as a rowdy, out-of-control, often plastered-to-the-gills live band, though Pollard thinks "this schizophrenic thing is what infatuated people. When we played our first show at CBGB's at the [1994] New Music Seminar, I think people expected us to be like the Residents; they didn't expect us to kick up a Ramones-type show where we banged 20 songs together and kicked ass with guitar rock. It was kind of confusing to people to have a completely different thing live and that was something that helped break us at the time. We don't sell a [lot] of records, but we sell enough to have a label keep us around. And I don't think that would have happened had we not been able to put on this kind of power rock live set. I thought it was cool that we had two different things going on."
There's also the issue of Pollard's seemingly endless canon: His songs number in the thousands, and his releases as GBV, solo artist, side bands and special projects number in the hundreds. The words prolific, obsessive and compulsive attach themselves easily to Pollard.
"Some people think it's diluting what I do, flooding the market," he concedes. "But I don't make music with the market in mind, I make it because it's what I do. It's an ongoing process, a part of my life, coming up with ideas and lyrics and titles. When I go to a friend's place or hang out at a bar, I keep a notebook even then. It's not work, but I'm working all the time. It's almost like breathing -- I do it all day long."
GUIDED BY VOICES -- Appearing Saturday at the 9:30 club. â?¢ To hear a free Sound Bite from Guided by Voices, call Post-Haste at 301-313-2200 and press 8121. (Prince William residents, call 703-690-4110.)
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see y'all there.
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Originally posted by pollard:
somebody's pictures from the boston show
http://www.driki.org/images/shows/gbv-boston/ (http://www.driki.org/images/shows/gbv-boston/)
Just noticed over in the FAQ section that someone asked about photography at tomorrow's show:
There will be no photography or videotaping allowed at the GBV show.
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Originally posted by Random Citizen:
Originally posted by pollard:
somebody's pictures from the boston show
http://www.driki.org/images/shows/gbv-boston/ (http://www.driki.org/images/shows/gbv-boston/)
Just noticed over in the FAQ section that someone asked about photography at tomorrow's show:
There will be no photography or videotaping allowed at the GBV show.
[/b]
Well, I bet our show looks much the same. Maybe different pants (though pretty likely not...). We must simply thank the Bostonian who either flouted the rules or took advantage of a lax policy there.... :D
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So I'm spinning my original vinyl copy of Tommy Keene's "Places That Are Gone" (1984 Dolphin Records) in advance of the show tonight, and I notice the following on the back cover:
management: SETH HURWITZ
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Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
So I'm spinning my original vinyl copy of Tommy Keene's "Places That Are Gone" (1984 Dolphin Records) in advance of the show tonight, and I notice the following on the back cover:
management: SETH HURWITZ
From what I remember of the old days, that sounds about right.
Concerning GBV, I'll be raising Hell on the couch with Guiny and Rhett except it will seem more like Hunt Valley.
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SO...how was the show? set list ?
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Well, I couldn't take three hours...and many fans around me were taking bets on how many hours/minutes into the show Pollard would fall off the stage. Another friend renamed them Guided by Budweiser...What's with the bass player leaving the stage in the middle of a song to take a piss? This "newbie" ("board speak" for those not into the inner mysteries of true musical genius) will take a pass on this legend...despite the opening video, it wasn't a "Kodak" (Polaroid, remember?) moment for me.
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I could only last until 1:20 AM (even with the benefit of sitting upstairs), with at least an hour left to go. Sad that I missed Tommy Keene singing lead vocals on glad girls.
Anyone last the whole night/morning?
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I lasted until the end...it was 2:30 give or take. Yesterday was rough -- not so much hang over as standing/dancing/bouncing-over. But, it was well worth it to see Keene onstage during the encore. There was a lot of love up on that stage!
The show was as I expected -- a blast, both up on stage and down with my friends watching, dancing and screaming.
It's not Pollard I was worried about though -- Nate Farley. I think he's going to die onstage on New Year's. Man oh man, he drinks both Bud and Teguila from the bottle like it's mother's milk....
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Guided by Voices: Plenty To Shout About
Monday, September 13, 2004; Page C05
The Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17098-2004Sep12.html)
Robert Pollard promised fans three hours of Guided by Voices tunes at the 9:30 club on Saturday. Then he delivered. The Dayton, Ohio-based band just launched "The Electrifying Conclusion Tour." And Pollard, the singer, songwriter and one constant in its two-decade history, says this will be the final tour. The group's following, as obsessive as any in rock, hasn't taken the news well, so Pollard doesn't want anyone feeling cheated: He put 50 song titles on the set list for the sold-out 9:30 show.
"We're getting paid $10,000 to play for you," Pollard announced. "That's $200 a song. So, clap!"
Guided by Voices has been in the public eye too long -- and has been too productive -- for every fan at every gig to know all the songs. Material from different eras elicits roars from different cliques. Older males thrust devil's horns toward the stage during the power dirge "The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory." The younger and female portion of the audience screamed loudest for "Girls of Wild Strawberries," a tune from the latest Guided by Voices disc, "Half Smiles of the Decomposed." But plenty of numbers -- the jangly "My Impression Now" and the headbanger "I Am a Tree" among them -- had everybody hopping together.
The band, in a party mood, gave away as many beers to fans as it chugged. Fans threw drinks on each other and the performers. Two women crashed the stage to dance with Pollard on "Cut-Out Witch," and club security didn't bounce them. Bassist Chris Slusarenko stopped the set twice to use the bathroom, and Pollard got the whole club chanting "bladder boy!"
For an encore, opening act Tommy Keene came onstage and took Pollard's place singing lead on a hilariously sloppy trio of Guided by Voices classics: "Motor Away," "Teenage FBI" and "Glad Girls." Pollard took back the microphone for a show-closing one-two of "Echoes Myron" and "I Am a Scientist."
When the house lights went on, fans stopped screaming and began asking each other if the show -- and their relationship with one of the most fun bands of its time -- was really over.
-- Dave McKenna
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Originally posted by Jaguär:
Concerning GBV, I'll be raising Hell on the couch with Guiny and Rhett except it will seem more like Hunt Valley. [/QB]
Damn!!!!!! Wish I could found the couch you were on.
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Originally posted by Bags:
The band, in a party mood, gave away as many beers to fans as it chugged. Fans threw drinks on each other and the performers. Two women crashed the stage to dance with Pollard on "Cut-Out Witch," and club security didn't bounce them. Bassist Chris Slusarenko stopped the set twice to use the bathroom, and Pollard got the whole club chanting "bladder boy!" [/QB]
Remember this when you guys make fun of HFS shows and bands that you dont like that do this kind of stuff. This is your band and your music now.
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I had more fun on Friday in Philadelphia but the perfomance was better at 9:30. If you left early it is a shame, but obviously your prerogative. I thought the show was good from start to finish, which isnt always the case with them.
I was way too tired from Friday to join in the crowd fun on Saturday, doesn't help that the 9:30 is so tightly packed in when it is sold out.
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Originally posted by Rob_Gee:
Remember this when you guys make fun of HFS shows and bands that you dont like that do this kind of stuff. This is your band and your music now.
oh defender of mainstream, please tell us where Bags or I have made fun of people doing this
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i too stuck it out to the end having decided this was the last time i would get to see the band live. and glad i did with tommy's appearence on stage and a "hits" laden encore. good show but a bit long for the casual gbv fan...
rarely do see a warmup act really get the audience warmup and ready for the headliner like tommy did.. of the couple times i've seen him this was the most amped up, the guitars were set on stun. killer set including "places that are gone", a mission of burma and lou reed cover.
ggw asked what tommy has done since his mid 80s and while not much, "10 years after" gets the occasional spin in the concrete manor. "the real underground" collects the early eps, etc on to one cd.
it will be interesting to see what the pollard/keene teaming will result in...
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Tommy Keene Setlist
Call On Me
Long Time Missing
No One In This City
Compromise
When Our Vows Break
Big Blue Sky
Einstein's Day
Highwire Days
Turning On Blue
Backto Zero Now
Places That Are Gone
Kill Your Sons
www.tommykeene.com (http://www.tommykeene.com)
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I thought about leaving before the encore on Saturday and I am sooooo glad I didn't.... definitely a show I will always remember....
just a fantastic GBV experience.
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i stuck it out till the end, although the end is kinda hazy. fan-fucking-tastic
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How do you guys stay awake until 2:30 in the morning and actually enjoy it? That much about attending concerts, I'll never understand.
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meth
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stayed till the end, and lost my voice during the night. an all-around great show, i somehow survived the entire night at the front. course, my knee was killing me the next morning. :)
looking forward to the new years eve show. . .
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Originally posted by pollard:
I had more fun on Friday in Philadelphia but the perfomance was better at 9:30.
[/b]
I think the "more fun" in Phillie the night before is the reason for the "less fun" show on Saturday! Glad to hear the 9:30 performance was good in comparison, though. I couldn't have made it two nights in a row myself....aaah, youth.
doesn't help that the 9:30 is so tightly packed in when it is sold out. [/b]
Although, the crowd "loosened up" quite a bit by the end of the first hour. We were about 10 people back, and for the second 2/3s of the show had plenty of space to dance and jump around.
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Originally posted by Rob_Gee:
Remember this when you guys make fun of HFS shows and bands that you dont like that do this kind of stuff. This is your band and your music now.
I don't think that HFS-type bands get slammed here for drinking or being rowdy during a show (hell, AWK is a favorite here....). The slags usually come because the music is lame....totally different complaint.
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I surprised myself by making it to the end. I was so sure I was gonna leave early that I made alternate plans. I stuck it out though, and it was well worth it. Many thanks to a certain board member who provided me with a place to sit down for the last half-hour. I must've looked pretty tired - haha :)
I was very happy to see Tommy Keene get such a great response from the crowd. He was one of those "he's gonna be HUGE" folks from the early DC days, but he never really broke through. Good to see him get some recognition and respect.
Now if I could just find "Songs From The Film" on CD...
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So moshing isn't cool cause people at GBV concerts don't do it, but throwing beer at each other is? And usually rushing the stage and dancing up there isnt cool either, but now all of a sudden it is cause it happended at a GBV concert. Usually its the frat boys or teenage girls that get slammed for doing stuff like that. Glad you all had a good time though, thats whats important. :)
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Originally posted by Bombay Chutney:
Now if I could just find "Songs From The Film" on CD...
It's out there....if you don't need an original copy, let me know. ;)
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Originally posted by Bags:
Originally posted by Bombay Chutney:
Now if I could just find "Songs From The Film" on CD...
It's out there....if you don't need an original copy, let me know. ;) [/b]
Look for the 1998 CD re-issue which includes most of the "Run Now" EP...
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if you didn't stay until the end, then you definitely missed the best part of the show. hard to beat an encore of "a salty salute," "motor away," "teenage fbi," "glad girls," "echos myron" and "i am a scientist." it was nice to see tommy (who indeed fucking rocked) out there singing with bob, i was getting a little verklempt.
i think it took a while for gbv to get into the groove, but i guess you can afford to do that when you play for three hours. by my watch it was a little closer to 2 hours and 40 minutes, but who's complaining? i think the video before they came on was done by the same folks who made the video for W at the republican convention. i was just waiting for that "rugged man voice" to come over the loudspeakers and say, "and despite drinking a combined 94 beers over the course of the show up to that point, all of them being in desperate need of taking a leak, and no one being able to see straight, let alone stand upright, the band played one of the best versions of 'tractor rape chain' ever."
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being a last-minute-larry as usual, I missed this one 'cuz it sold out. :( I can't imagine a 3-hour set, though, my attention span can't accommodate anything that long no matter how good!
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Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
Look for the 1998 CD re-issue which includes most of the "Run Now" EP...
This is what I have, Chutney...My original CD was stolen in 1989 :( , but you get "Run Now"!
I was calling out for "Marylin Monroe". I know he probably had a pretty specific set list, but I figured it'd just be good to know there were longtime fans in the audience. He said thank you, in fact! <img src="http://pages.prodigy.net/rogerlori1/emoticons/swoon.gif" alt=" - " />
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The Tommy Keene folks were taping for use in a DVD.
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Originally posted by Rob_Gee:
So moshing isn't cool cause people at GBV concerts don't do it, but throwing beer at each other is? And usually rushing the stage and dancing up there isnt cool either, but now all of a sudden it is cause it happended at a GBV concert. Usually its the frat boys or teenage girls that get slammed for doing stuff like that. Glad you all had a good time though, thats whats important. :)
well, there was much moshing at the magnet mag party last year, during the gbv set. i broke my spiderman watch.
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Originally posted by Rob_Gee:
So moshing isn't cool cause people at GBV concerts don't do it, but throwing beer at each other is? And usually rushing the stage and dancing up there isnt cool either, but now all of a sudden it is cause it happended at a GBV concert. Usually its the frat boys or teenage girls that get slammed for doing stuff like that. Glad you all had a good time though, thats whats important. :)
Rob, who said:
(1) moshing isn't cool
(2) throwing beer is cool
(3) that anyone rushed the stage at GBV, and
(4) dancing up front by the stage is not good?
You're extrapolating a lot....again, I think you're confusing slams about certain bands music with slams about show behavior (though one point to make -- the GBV show was packed, but people weren't pushing or elbowing or exhibiting particularly asshole-ish behavior, which does make a difference and is a crowd thing...)
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I'll be the minority, possibly of one, and say that A) I thought Tommy Keene's opening set was somewhat boring, and B) his high-pitched squeal of a voice sounded TERRIBLE on Teenage FBI and Glad Girls. For the last ever encore of a GBV show, I want to hear Bob braying to the masses, not Tommy Keene. I, and most of the people around me, were very glad when he finally got off the damn stage and let GBV finish their own damn show.
Great time other than that. I am a Tree was a highpoint, as was the Sad if I Lost It opener, and Buzzards and Dreadful Crows.
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Originally posted by Relaxer:
I want to hear Bob braying to the masses, not Tommy Keene. I, and most of the people around me, were very glad when he finally got off the damn stage and let GBV finish their own damn show.
A friend who was at the show with me agrees with you completely. I happen to love Keene a lot, and I loved the encore. But, if GBV were one of my absolute faves, I'd probably feel the same way (though after 2.5 hours, does it really detract much?).
I agree though -- Keene's voice is perfect for his songs, and Bob's voice is perfect for his songs....
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For an encore and in particular, a last show, I can undestand. Sometimes I don't like it when bands alter or botch their encore / popular songs.
Originally posted by Bags:
Originally posted by Relaxer:
I want to hear Bob braying to the masses, not Tommy Keene. I, and most of the people around me, were very glad when he finally got off the damn stage and let GBV finish their own damn show.
(though after 2.5 hours, does it really detract much?).[/b]
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Natalie Merchant once RUINED an R.E.M. encore for me, with her damn warbly voice and twirly circle dancing... And it was such a great show at Radio City Music Hall. ;)
Originally posted by Sugartastic Tee Silk:
For an encore and in particular, a last show, I can undestand. Sometimes I don't like it when bands alter or botch their encore / popular songs.
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a bit torrent of the DC show is being linked on largehearted boy. Can someone explain to me what the hell one of these things are?
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Originally posted by redsock:
a bit torrent of the DC show is being linked on largehearted boy. Can someone explain to me what the hell one of these things are?
http://dessent.net/btfaq/ (http://dessent.net/btfaq/)
BitTorrent is a protocol designed for transferring files. It is peer-to-peer in nature, as users connect to each other directly to send and receive portions of the file. However, there is a central server (called a tracker) which coordinates the action of all such peers. The tracker only manages connections, it does not have any knowledge of the contents of the files being distributed, and therefore a large number of users can be supported with relatively limited tracker bandwidth. The key philosophy of BitTorrent is that users should upload (transmit outbound) at the same time they are downloading (receiving inbound.) In this manner, network bandwidth is utilized as efficiently as possible. BitTorrent is designed to work better as the number of people interested in a certain file increases, in contrast to other file transfer protocols.
That means, if you want the show, get it sooner then later, the download is much faster when more people are interested.
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i thought the show was great. the first ten songs or so rocked, (esp. I Am a Tree, which i hadn't heard live before), then it got a bit sloppy in the middle, but last 45 minutes or so was great. the encore was full of "hits", but as someone who doesn't have the energy to keep track of everything Pollard has done, that was fine with me. fairly consistent show throughout for GBV, which isn't always the case for them.
It was fun to see Tommy on stage with Pollard at the end, lots of love there, but keene's voice doesn't suit GBV. still, no biggie, it was still great. good crowd too. And Pollard is the Face of Rock and Roll. i can't get enough of his feaux rock poses, the kicks and the raps. Bags and i the dirty dozen got out money's worth.
BTW, how great is it in this day and age that we see a good band on their farwell tour with a good opener for $20?
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Originally posted by tooms:
BTW, how great is it in this day and age that we see a good band on their farwell tour with a good opener for $20? [/QB]
When one finally comes around, I'll let ya know.
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setlist
930 Club, Washington DC 9/11/2004
Sad If I Lost it/Everyone Thinks I'm A Raincloud (When I'm Not Looking)/My Impression Now/Sleep Over Jack/Girls of Wild Strawberries/Things I Will Keep/I Am a Tree/Window of My World/Run Son Run/Game of Pricks/The Best of Jill Hives/Squirmish Frontal Room/Red Men and Their Wives/Gonna Never Have to Die/Cut-out Witch/The Closets of Henry/Tour Guide at the Winston Churchill Memorial/I'll Replace You With Machines/Christian Animation Torch Carriers/Back to the Lake/My Kind of Soldier/Navigating Flood Regions/Beg for a Wheelbarrow/Tropical Robots/It's Only Natural/Secret Star/Queen of Cans and Jars/I Drove a Tank/Shocker in Gloomtown/Lethargy/Red Ink Superman/Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory/Chief Barrel Belly/Sons of Apollo/Asphyxiated Circle/Bull Spears/Mascara Snakes/Watch Me Jumpstart/Harrison Adams/Tractor Rape Chain/Their Biggest Win/Buzzards and Dreadful Crows/Murder Charge/ENCORE: A Salty Salute/Motor Away/Teenage FBI/Glad Girls/Echos Myron/I Am a Scientist
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Thanks, P....
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Originally posted by pollard:
setlist
930 Club, Washington DC 9/11/2004
Sad If I Lost it/Everyone Thinks I'm A Raincloud (When I'm Not Looking)/My Impression Now/Sleep Over Jack/Girls of Wild Strawberries/Things I Will Keep/I Am a Tree/Window of My World/Run Son Run/Game of Pricks/The Best of Jill Hives/Squirmish Frontal Room/Red Men and Their Wives/Gonna Never Have to Die/Cut-out Witch/The Closets of Henry/Tour Guide at the Winston Churchill Memorial/I'll Replace You With Machines/Christian Animation Torch Carriers/Back to the Lake/My Kind of Soldier/Navigating Flood Regions/Beg for a Wheelbarrow/Tropical Robots/It's Only Natural/Secret Star/Queen of Cans and Jars/I Drove a Tank/Shocker in Gloomtown/Lethargy/Red Ink Superman/Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory/Chief Barrel Belly/Sons of Apollo/Asphyxiated Circle/Bull Spears/Mascara Snakes/Watch Me Jumpstart/Harrison Adams/Tractor Rape Chain/Their Biggest Win/Buzzards and Dreadful Crows/Murder Charge/ENCORE: A Salty Salute/Motor Away/Teenage FBI/Glad Girls/Echos Myron/I Am a Scientist
now that's a setlist.
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goodbye, dear Pollard, we'll miss ye....
------------------------------------------------------------------------
December 7, 2004
ROCK REVIEW
A Band That Built Its Cult Fan by Fan, Not Hit by Hit
By JON PARELES
ith no small pride, Robert Pollard told the sold-out audience at Irving Plaza on Sunday that his band, Guided by Voices, was playing "a three-hour show without one single hit." It was the boast of a songwriter who has earned every member of an international cult.
The concert was the last New York City show for Guided by Voices, the name of Mr. Pollard's band since 1983, which will be ending its career with a New Year's Eve show in Chicago. It's a farewell tour, but not quite as final as, for instance, the breakup of Phish (also founded in 1983) this year. Phish's lineup had not changed since 1985, while the only constant in Guided by Voices has been Mr. Pollard as singer and songwriter, and he is unlikely to stay silent.
Guided by Voices did everything cult bands do: touring steadily and putting out more music than anyone but a full-time fan can absorb, with more than two dozen albums and hundreds of songs. "We only have 8,000 songs," Mr. Pollard said, not exaggerating by much; he is startlingly prolific.
Coming from out-of-the-way Dayton, Ohio, recording many songs as low-fi, do-it-yourself projects and coming up with album titles like "Half Smiles of the Decomposed" only made Guided by Voices more of a find. On Sunday night, the band played songs every fan knew - "A Salty Salute," "I Am a Scientist," "Tractor Rape Chain" - alongside songs like "Tropical Robots" and "Redmen and Their Wives" that are collectors' items.
In a different pop era - the 1960's and the early 70's - Mr. Pollard would have been a hitmaker. He reaches back to the Beatles, the Byrds, the Who and their Midwestern disciples like Cheap Trick, the Raspberries and the Replacements; occasionally, he jumps ahead to pulsating new wave rock. Mr. Pollard's songs are perpetually tuneful, and he sings like a more wistful John Lennon.
His lyrics can be allusive free associations or straightforward confessions of disaffection and self-doubt. "Pimple Zoo" repeats, "Sometimes I get the feeling that you don't want me around" over chunky Beatles guitar chords. For all the whimsy and wordplay, Mr. Pollard's songs have plenty of heart. The final song on Sunday, "Echos Myron," observed, "All of a sudden I'm relatively sane/with everything to lose and nothing to gain."
Guided by Voices is retiring in top musical form. Onstage, Doug Gillard and Nate Farley's guitars entwined for folk-rock picking or shared hefty chords; Chris Slusarenko on bass and Kevin March on drums made the songs brawny and explosive. Mr. Pollard swigged beer and tequila, did shoulder-high kicks, swung his microphone on its cord like Roger Daltrey and embraced fans who climbed onto the stage, letting some of them sing. It wasn't an arena gig, but Mr. Pollard was definitely a star.
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matt/pollard, have you seen setlists for the Irving shows?
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Originally posted by tooms:
matt/pollard, have you seen setlists for the Irving shows?
i checked gbv.com and gbvdb.com earlier today, they dont seem to be up yet, but I would guess they might be in the next couple of days
from what I have heard, people who went to all 3 shows said sunday was the best, figures, but the first 2 were still great
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Originally posted by tooms:
matt/pollard, have you seen setlists for the Irving shows?
Irving Plaza, New York NY 12/3/2004
Pink Gun/Pimple Zoo/Everybody Thinks I'm A Raincloud (When I'm Not Looking)/Do The Earth/Sleepover Jack/Thing I Will Keep/Lord Of Overstock/My Impression Now/You're Gonna Never Have to Die/Redmen and Their Wives/Girls Of Wild Strawberries/Matter Eater Lad/Gold Star for Robot Boy/Windows of My World/Demons Are Real/Sad If I Lost It/I am a Tree/Glow Boy Butlers/Dayton Ohio 19 Something and 5/Sons Of Apollo/My Kind Of Soldier/Back To The Lake/Mascara Snakes/Red Ink Superman/Exit Flagger/Bright Paper Werewolves/Weed King/Biggest Win/Game Of Pricks/Heâ??s The Uncle/Pendulum/Johnny Appleseed/Unleashed! Large Hearted Boy/Navigating Flood Regions/Watch Me Jumpstart/Chief Barrel Belly/Shocker In Gloomtown/Buzzards and Dreadful Crows/Best of Jill Hives/Cut Out Witch/Murder Charge/Encore:Squirmish Frontal Room/Queen Of Cans and Jars/Tractor Rape Chain/Teenage FBI/Glad Girls/Don't Stop Now/Echoes Myron/I am A Scientist
Irving Plaza, New York NY 12/4/2004
Demons are Real/I Drove A Tank/Girls Of Wild Strawberries/My Impression Now/Bull Spears/Glow Boy Butlers/Do The Earth/Red Ink Superman/Gold Star for Robot Boy/Sleepover Jack/Lord Of Overstock/Lethargy/Pendulum/Windows of My World/Solsbury Hill (with Jim Pollard)/It's Only Natural/Dayton Ohio 19 Something and 5/Pink Gun/Sons Of Apollo/Everybody Thinks I'm A Raincloud (When I'm Not Looking)/Back To The Lake/Squirmish Frontal Room/Gold Heart Mountaintop Queen Directory/Queen Of Cans and Jars/Navigating Flood Regions/Redmen and Their Wives/Fair Touching/Beg For A Wheelbarrol/Alone, Stinking, and Unafraid/Glad Girls/You're Gonna Never Have to Die/Secret Star/I am a Tree/Pimple Zoo/Watch Me Jumpstart/Game Of Pricks/Heâ??s The Uncle/Drinker's Peace/Chief Barrel Belly/Exit Flagger/Johnny Appleseed/Unleashed! Large Hearted Boy/Cut-Out Witch/Buzzards and Dreadful Crows/Murder Charge/Encore:/Sad If I Lost It/Thing I Will Keep/Motor Away/Tractor Rape Chain/Shocker In Gloomtown/I Am A Scientist/Smothered In Hugs
Irving Plaza, New York NY 12/5/2004
A Salty Salute/You're Gonna Never Have to Die/Pimple Zoo/Things I Will Keep/Shocker In Gloomtown/Drinker's Peace/Hot Freaks/Lord Of Overstock/Girls Of Wild Strawberries/My Kind of Soldier/Sons Of Apollo/Tropical Robots/Smothered In Hugs/Redmen and Their Wives/Exit Flagger/Sleepover Jack/Subspace Biographies/My Impression Now/Teenage FBI/Trap Door Soul/I am a Tree/Window of My World/The Best of Jill Hives/Demons Are Real/Postal Blowfish/Choking Tara/Gold Star for Robot Boy/Do The Earth/Whiskey Ships/Everybody Thinks I'm A Raincloud (When I'm Not Looking)/Back To The Lake/Secret Star/My Valuable Hunting Knife/Bright Paper Werewolves/Buzzards and Dreadful Crows/Sad If I Lost It/Pink Gun/Matter Eater Lad/Johnny Appleseed/Unleashed! Large Hearted Boy/Dayton Ohio 19 Something and 5/Pendulum/Murder Charge/Encore:If We Wait/Heâ??s The Uncle/Glad Girls/Gold Heart Mountaintop Queen Directory/Watch Me Jumpstart/Cut-Out Witch/Tractor Rape Chain/Don't Stop Now/Encore:Motor Away/I Am A Scientist/Echos Myron
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damn! sunday's set included "if we wait. i've been waiting for years to hear them play that song live...i only hope they include it in the NYE setlist. that would be the saddest song they could go out on.
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Originally posted by joz:
damn! sunday's set included "if we wait. i've been waiting for years to hear them play that song live...i only hope they include it in the NYE setlist. that would be the saddest song they could go out on.
there were a lot of happy people for that one, they have played it several times recently, they will probably play it one of the nights in Chicago
the one song I wanted to hear the most, and a lot of other people as well, is Over the Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox, I bet they play it NYE
they only played Weed King because people were chanting for it Friday night, and they only made it through the beginning
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Originally posted by pollard:
they only played Weed King because people were chanting for it Friday night, and they only made it through the beginning
weed king. . .i've only heard them play it once, and that was during the. . .mag earwhig tour, i do believe. love that song. . .
ditto pollard on mesh gear fox.
per page 6, christopher imperoli was apparently at one of the nyc shows, rocking out and singing along.
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Originally posted by Venerable Bede:
per page 6, christopher imperoli was apparently at one of the nyc shows, rocking out and singing along.
there were a lot of "vips" (Chloe Sevigny, Drew Barrymore and a lot of Saddle Creek people with Conor Oberst, there is a picture somewhere of Bob with Fabio from The Strokes and Drew Barrymore)
And before anybody gives me shit, this isnt to say hey look a bunch of famous people like gbv, just mentioning for the celebrity interested folks
not knowing Oberst was there, Pollard spent 10 minutes talking about how bad Bright Eyes is
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Seriously? That's pretty hilarious.
Originally posted by pollard:
not knowing Oberst was there, Pollard spent 10 minutes talking about how bad Bright Eyes is
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Originally posted by nkotbie:
Seriously? That's pretty hilarious.
yeah i was there for the on stage rant, and several people told me they saw oberst, then here -
http://www.productshopnyc.com/ (http://www.productshopnyc.com/)
Before the show even started, GBV godhead Bobby Pollard was in rare form as he got ready backstage to perform. A mixture of slight intoxication and anger took him over as he told a small circle of friends - and yes that includes Drew and Fab - the story about how the previous night he was talking shit about Bright Eyes, only to later learn that Conner was in the crowd! Oh well, as Bob said, "Fuck them. Their music sucks." That and he also seemed to be on a mission to destroy the legacy of The Beach Boys and Chasez, but that's another issue.
<img src="http://www.productshopnyc.com/archives/fabbobdrew.jpg" alt=" - " />
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Originally posted by pollard:
not knowing Oberst was there, Pollard spent 10 minutes talking about how bad Bright Eyes is
Oh man, that is a riot -- I LOVED that rant and was cheering along. Wonder if Oberst was anywhere nearby.... :D
I didn't see anyone famous but pollard (our pollard, not THE Pollard).
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Originally posted by pollard:
the one song I wanted to hear the most, and a lot of other people as well, is Over the Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox, I bet they play it NYE
i'm keeping fingers crossed for that one too. my husband wooed me with that song back in the day and i would kill to hear them open with it on NYE.
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totally forgot about that rant! it was a good one.
thanks for posting the set lists, Matt!
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Did anyone go to the Chicago shows? Tooms just sent me this review. While it sounds great, I was satiated by the three shows I saw in 2004...
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A final, fitting note
--------------------
Guided By Voices caps 21-year run by flexing its mix of carefree, creative
By Bob Gendron
Special to the Tribune
January 3, 2005
Before the festivities commenced, revelers could tell that they were
going to be in for a long, special night just by taking one look at the
Metro's stage. Two 5-gallon buckets sat on the drum riser, crudely
labeled as receptacles for band members to relieve themselves. Three
plastic tubs crammed with beer bottles and ice rested on the floor.
Reserve cases of suds stood nearby. If those libations weren't
enough--and they weren't--a bar stocked with hard liquor and manned by
an overzealous server named Trader Vic was off to the right, its vacant
barstool doubling as a welcome mat for the thirsty. Shortly after 11:30
p.m., a large neon sign hanging above lit up to proclaim "The Club Is
Open." Guided By Voices' final show was officially under way.
After 21 years, dozens of releases and a back catalog that makes Bob
Dylan's songbook seem small, the Ohio band founded by a grade-school
teacher and beloved by legions of cult fans said its farewell New Year's
Eve in front of a sold-out house. The party included a traditional
balloon drop and countdown, but ringing in 2005 paled in comparison to
celebrating a group whose unassuming background and lo-fi recordings
established indie-rock standards throughout the '90s. The band is
calling it quits not because it lacks success or critical acclaim, but
because the group's creative minds fear complacency and want to move on
to fresh challenges.
Irreverent, sloppy and carefree, the 220-minute performance touched on
all of Guided By Voices' lovable strengths and irritating excesses. Over
the course of a mind-boggling 63 songs, soaring mountaintop melodies,
paper-crunching crescendos and cactus-sharp notes tucked away in lush
harmonic blankets shared space with frazzled diction, haphazard
arrangements and confounding 30-second fragments that were dead upon
arrival. The quintet wouldn't have wanted it any other way.
Early on, Guided By Voices captain of industry Bob Pollard declared his
intention to get inebriated. Although the vocalist's speech deteriorated
with each drink, he avoided garbling words until well past the set's
midway point, after which he briefly began reducing smash-and-grab
power-pop such as "Huffman Prairie Flying Field" and "Unleashed! The
Large-Hearted Boy" into slurry.
But as has long been Guided By Voices' credo, when one member falls the
others rally and pick him up. Nate Farley was so soused that his eyes
were tiny slits, yet he and Doug Gillard's guitars carved hang-fire
grooves, fire-crackling tones and sticky-sweet hooks into the
trampoline-bounce rhythms and serrated tempos supplied by bassist Chris
Slusarenko and drummer Kevin March. A rotating cast of guest musicians
comprising former band members, family and friends spelled temporary
relief for everyone but Pollard, who took a few quick time-outs by
handing his microphone to willing participants in the crowd.
Pollard also received a pick-me-up in the form of a break before the
first encore. When he returned, his faux English accent, sailor
salutations, Roger Daltrey microphone-cord twirl and one-legged bunny
hop were backfiring on all cylinders. The quintet proceeded to rattle
off a stream of should-have-been hits, sonically commandeering a moped's
sputtering engine for "Motor Away," contemplating physics through the
roller-coasting dips of "Echos Myron" and transforming the crowd into a
giddy choir that basked in the paranoid vibes of "Teenage FBI."
Halfway into "Secret Star," Pollard launched into the reasons he started
Guided By Voices. He recalled telling his first mates, "I just want to
have fun. I don't have anything to offer because it's all been done."
And although the band's tuneful chug drew from a gene pool that included
the Who, the Cars and Cheap Trick, Pollard's intuitive ability to
transport listeners to exotic worlds was anything but ordinary. Pasted
together, his mystical lyrics and impassioned delivery were a mammoth
storybook that never ran out of pages or ideas. "Wished I Was a Giant,"
"I Am a Scientist" and "I Am a Tree" reflected childlike fantasies; "I
Drove a Tank" and "My Valuable Hunting Knife" served as escapist
mechanisms; "Hot Freaks" and "Demons Are Real" adopted folklore's sense
of mystery.
When the swan song arrived, Pollard jokingly introduced it as a new
number titled "The Ballad of Guided By Voices." It was actually "Don't
Stop Now," a message that as he sang the closing chorus, Pollard
struggled against defying. Standing motionless with his eyes closed and
right hand frozen in the air, the 47-year-old was a stoic portrait of
bittersweet relief and sad joy, realizing that what began as a basement
hobby was in the home stretch of its fairytale run, a dream that if it
had been anything but real no one would ever have believed could come true.
Copyright (c) 2004, Chicago Tribune