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Alt-rock juggernaut Guided By Voices brought its
forthcoming album and a cooler full of rock muscle to
the stage of New York's Bowery Ballroom Wednesday
night (Feb. 14). On the surface, a beery,
two-hour-plus rock show might not seem like the
classiest way to spend Valentine's Day, but that
really depends on your definition of romance.
Led by charismatic frontman Robert Pollard, GBV has
become the romantic version of the classic rock'n'roll
band -- powerful hooks, pounding drums, and anthemic
lyrics delivered by a beer-swilling, van-driving
Midwestern quintet who live for their music. Each
night they draw dozens of songs from an astoundingly
large repertoire while fervent, sold-out crowds hinge
on (and sing along to) Pollard's every word.
The band has just begun a relatively short, two-week
trek to promote its 12th full-length album, "Isolation
Drills" (TVT, due April 3), and Wednesday's show
opened up with a live rendition of the new record, in
sequence. The songs from "Isolation" fit in snugly
with GBV's concert presence, opening with slashing
rockers "Fair Touching" and "Skills Like This" before
sliding into poppier numbers like "Unspirited" and
"Glad Girls" and more quirky fare such as the abrupt
"Want One?"
Via the wonders of pre-release promotion and online
file sharing, a good share of audience members showed
recognition in parts of the show's "Isolation"
segment. But the crowd's real appreciation came when
the GBV "classics" started pouring out. "Whiskey
Ships" (from Pollard's second solo album "Waved Out"),
"Closer You Are" and "Watch Me Jumpstart" (from GBV's
1995 watershed "Alien Lanes" record), "Back To Saturn
X" (from 1992's "Propeller"), and many more lit up
faces in the audience and fired the band members up to
full steam.
No, these aren't rock anthems on the level of
"Stairway To Heaven" or "Hey Hey, My My." But the
intensity Pollard and company infused into every song
paid high dividends, and guitarist Doug Gillard seemed
to coax maximum power out of every little riff.
However silly the title, or the lyric, of a given
song, and however ill-recorded the original version,
both the band and its fans seem to believe in the
music, and that's what makes the GBV experience work
so well.
The show careened toward a climactic end featuring a
rousing rendition of the aforementioned Who classic
"Baba O'Riley" and the spiraling riffs of GBV's own
"Cut-Out Witch." Seven tunes over two encores brought
the evening's song tally to 40, and the band waved
goodnight.
The show was somehow the shortest yet on the
mini-tour, compared to some 47 songs played last
Sunday in Chicago. But there was no question the
Bowery crowd got its money's worth. Part blue-collar
workingman's band, part bombastic rock stars, Guided
By Voices consistently prove they know how to put on a
rock show.