Guided by Voices 2020

Just finished watching a Guided by Voices concert recorded recently. It wasn't live (as evidenced by Uncle Bob's change of shirts, and the trippy footage interspersed) but it more than fulfilled the promise of what GbV is all about: marathon setlists, camaraderie and songs to pump your fist and sing along with.

Okay, that last part was a bit tricky, since there was no audience. And one of the pleasures of a GbV concert is the audience warmth who treat each other like family, as much as they do the leader of their favorite group.

Still, out of all the bands I've "seen" this year during quarantine, Robert Pollard and company were the only ones to deliver a two and a half hour set with no audience.

The band was as tight and powerful as ever. If anything, this particular delivery benefitted from the fact that they weren't as ramshackle drunk as they usually are by night's end.

There were no embarrassing moments of people needing to piss on stage, or any one falling down. For the uninitiated and uninebriated seeing this band for the first time, it was an almost completely stellar performance.

The only thing I missed was the lack of stage banter that Pollard is famous for. Unlike Lou Reed's catty snarkfest on Take No Prisoners, Bob is a mostly affable drunk. There was one glorious adlib, during the song “Glad Girls,” when Bob sung “there will be no graduation…” he turned to the camera and quipped “Not this year.” It made me long to see them live surrounded by a lot of sweaty (mostly) male dudes hoisting their beers at their Ohio version of Pete Townshend.

To only talk about Pollard's alcohol intake would do a massive disservice to his gift of melodic songcraft, not to mention lyrics that are elusive and evocative, as much as they are direct. I have long since stopped wishing more ears heard this band, as I have grown to accept their place on the ladder. Still, it pains me to know songs like "I am a scientist," "Motor Away," "Jane of the waking universe," and "Back to the lake," aren't more well-known.

I was inspired enough by this band to use not one but two of their titles ("God loves us," and "Buzzards and dreadful crows"as inspiration to create stories for A-Sides and B-Sides. That must count for something, right?