goodbye, dear Pollard, we'll miss ye....
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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.
