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Drinking beer after beer, Guided by Voices plays and plays
Allen Kraus
The Other Paper
3/30/00

Thanks to Chris Wales for transcribing!

What is it about teaching school that would motivate
one to become a rock musician?
The obvious answer is fame and fortune.
But Guided by Voices front man Robert Pollard gave up
teaching and seemed to do everything possible to avoid
the trappings of stardom -- stardom altogether -- by
keeping his music just sloppy and inaccessible enough
to stay obscure.

As with all its shows, GbV's performance Friday at the
Al Rosa Villa suggested Pollard's real career
motivation. After all, you can't drink and smoke
ceaselessly in the classroom.

He summarized his job description on Friday: "Drink a
lot of beer, write a lot of songs, play them on stage.
It's easy," he said. "Don't try to make it rocket
science." 

On the other hand Pollard may have decided last year
that it was time to drink his beer and play his songs
on a bigger stage when GbV released Do the Collapse.
Slickly produced by ex-Car Ric Ocasek and shopped to
the major record labels, Collapse wound up on big
indie TVT, and Pollard wound up back at the Al Rosa.
But hey, they've got plenty of beer there.

The Budweiser parade that made its way backstage
before GbV's set was considerable, but Pollard's
bladder proved up to the task, holding on during an
interminable set of unfinished pop gems. For sheer
number of compositions performed, the show may have
set an Al Rosa record.

It would be easy to assume, given Pollard's bent for
beers and his band's lower-than-lo-fi recording
history, that GbV is the sloppiest live band on the
planet. But Pollard knows better than to take his
guitar out of the studio. So while he drunkenly twirled
the mic like Roger Daltrey and pouted like Mick
Jagger, his band played a rock-solid set, aided by the
best sound I've heard since Mekka closed.

Lead guitarist Doug Gillard and rhythm guitarist Nate
Farley hammered home well over two hours of flawlessly
coordinated crunch, each backing Pollard's raspy,
Camel-ravaged lead vocal along the way. In his last
show with the band, drummer Jim MacPherson hammered
away, and goofball bass player Greg Demos staggered
around like a drunk, but pounded out a sobering, solid
bottom end. 

The band worked its way through a massive set list,
pausing only to let Pollard offer song introductions
that were every bit as nonsensical as his innocuous
lyrics. Though not avoiding Collapse entirely, Pollard
seemed more interested in pleasing the floorful of GbV
fanatics than promoting his new record. Accordingly,
he hit the back catalog hard, performing favorites
like Lethargy, I Am a Scientist, Bulldog Skin and the
epic (by GbV standards) I Am a Tree.

As for the new stuff, it was performed live without
Ocasek's pulsing, synth-laden background. Some tunes
benefited from that, some didn't. Gillard was
particularly impressive on guitar all night, deserving
of his somewhat stable place in GbV's revolving-door
lineup.

The crowd had to endure a long delay before encores,
presumably while Pollard made a prolonged pit stop.
Filling the time, a plastered fan babbled to the crowd
about how he planned to propose to his girlfriend,
whom he'd met at a GbV show. A beautiful moment, to be
sure.

Then, after Pollard finished, flushed and (we hope)
washed his hands, the wait was rewarded. GbV delivered
as many songs during its three encores as some bands
do in an entire show. It was enough to make you wonder
what venues Pollard could fill if he had the attention
span to finish his songs. Then again, he tried that on
Collapse, and look where that got him: right back at
Al Rosa.

None of which seemed to bother him on Friday -- the
beer appeared to go down just fine, and the Al Rosa
audience is close enough to light your cigarette.

What more does a guy need? It's not rocket science