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Guided By Voices with Superdrag at
Oh, the travails of the indie rock fan living in the Tidewater area of VA. One often finds that his or her only chance to see certain shows involves either road-tripping four hours north to our nations capital or four hours south to the college rock mecca that is the North Carolina Triangle. Thus for Guided By Voices, I decided to make the more pleasant trip south, and head down 85 rather than up 95 toward the yet-to-be-caught-at-the-time snipers. Knoxville, Tennessees Superdrag opened the show. Being more familiar with this bands earlier stuff, which aired on the side of power-pop, I must say that I was impressed with where Superdrag has taken its music over the years. Using its power chords and vocal harmonies to straddle the line between power-pop and fuzzy punk, Superdrag kept the audience attentive throughout their lengthy set, despite a stint with some equipment difficulties. It was clear that a good handful of fans in the crowd had come primarily to see Superdrag. The band rocked out on new songs such as Baby Goes to Eleven as well as older tunes, like the radio hit, Sucked Out. Superdrag ended its set with a mesmerizing jam that properly revved up the crowd for what was to come. Guided By Voices is a band Ive always wanted to see live. They're a group whose style (and lineup) has changed constantly over a nearly 20-year career. This has left me curious to find out how onstage they would reconcile their trademark lo-fi sound with what some of their disgruntled fans have dubbed as their recent arena rock tendencies. It seemed obvious to me that the arena rock tendencies would win out in a live setting, mostly because of what a live rock show usually requires in order to be, well, exciting. Yet, as I browsed the highly homogeneous crowd of mostly males, I still spotted plenty of shaggy guys in the corner, who had clearly ODed on Bee Thousand alone in their bedrooms long ago, and who somehow managed to stand completely still with arms crossed as Bob Pollard and co. belted out nearly all of the self-proclaimed arena rock anthems from their latest full-length, Universal Truths and Cycles.
Still, this was a show for GBV fans of all eras. Before they took the stage, a man came out and told the crowd that he regretted to inform that the band was not feeling well and would have to perform an abbreviated set. of about 72 songs. The crowd went nuts as the band took the stage and went on to perform an extensive set plus two encores of GBV songs from across the spectrum. Infusing his infamous Roger Daltrey-style scissor-kicks and microphone twirls along with some drunken revelry into the performance, Pollard led the band in not only new rockers like Christian Animation Torch Carriers, but also beautiful loner theme-songs like Hardcore UFOs and Smothered in Hugs. And somehow they all fit together perfectly, which has always been something this band does better than anyone else: string a slew of songs together like mixed thoughts in your brain or a confused dream - but somehow it all ends up making sense. This is what happened when GBV played two of my favorite songs back to back, the new Everywhere with Helicopter, followed by the classic Tractor Rape Chain. Somehow they took these songs out of the seemingly essential context of their albums and managed to make them blend next to one another in a live setting. But should anything less be expected from the prolific artist that is Bob Pollard? Even he announced to the crowd that the band could put out an album every fucking day if it wanted to. And Guided By Voices has certainly come as close to that goal as any. As GBV exited the stage following the first encore, the club turned on its lights. But a good chunk of the crowd werent ready for the show to end, and thus began to clap while singing a remarkably in-unison and on-key version of Salty Salute. By singing that The club is open, the crowd actually convinced the club to remain open and coaxed the flattered band back on stage to sing its excellent version of Salty Salute. To me, what makes a good show great is the rapport between the band and the crowd, and at the Cats Cradle that night, the bands captivation of the crowd was unmatched. Total playing time? Two hours and twenty minutes. Did they actually play 72 songs? I dont know; it was my birthday, so I was as drunk as Bob Pollard was. Was it worth the four hour drive to Chapel Hill and back? Worth every second.
Releases from Guided By
Voices can be purchased at Amazon,
Insound
& CDUniverse
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