<html>

Concert Reviews- Dfactor in Cleveland April 26, 1997

Guided By Voices - Satan's Satellites - John Wicks & the Records
April 26, 1997 at the Phantasy Club, Lakewood, Ohio

The new, improved Guided By Voices (Matador Records) came out swinging
to the high heavens in late April for the band's first official show
with its new lineup. GBV frontman, leader and founder Bob Pollard shook
rock's foundations to the limit with a blazing 2-hour plus sold-out show
that never lacked in energy, spunk or rockin' pizazz.

On GBV's new CD (Mag Earwhig! - Matador Records) and this tour,
Pollard's colossal songs are being punched up and magnified by Cleveland
band Cobra Verde (formerly Death of Samantha). So, the location of
Cleveland's Phantasy Club proved to be the ideal location for the gig,
melding Cleveland's Cobra Verde contingent with the Guided by Voices fan
base from all over the US.

For GBV, it was a long day at the Phantasy Club. The band started at
just past noon shooting a video for "Bulldog Skin" a 3 minute
-Stones-styled romp through pop's trenches and the first single from MAG
EARWHIG! Shooting went on to nearly 7pm, leaving little time for sound
checks.

Introduced by GBV's Bob Pollard, John Wicks and the Records hit the
compact stage at 10pm, playing 45 minutes of power pop to the
appreciative crowd. Eerily resembling Kiss's Peter Criss (in the
Unplugged show), British-born Wickes proved he still has the chops to
make the 1979 classic Records LP tracks stand tall. "Teenarama", "Girl"
and of course "Starry Eyes" balanced the set, with newer songs mixed in.
A smokin' young lead guitar player made the songs jump up to bite you.

Up next were Cleveland's Satan's Satellites, fronted by an sterling
guitarist who resemblance to Howard Stern circa 1978 gave the band an
overwhelmingly goofy-looking visual focus. Their forte is surf-punk,
which is seemingly everywhere, but Satan's Satellites (shame about their
name) gave it their best in front of an obviously eager-GBV crowd,
mixing tantalizing anthemic surf blasts with whimsical slower tracks
that gave their female singer room to shine.

All this was quickly forgotten around midnight, when Guided By Voices in
their new incarnation took the stage. With Pollard's words that "These
guys may not drink as much as my old band, but they can sure rock it
out", the band flew into "Maggie Turns to Flies" the lead track from
Pollard's solo effort from 1996 "Not In My Airforce."

The band immediately got into material from MAG EARWHIG! With a
potential top ten single "Jane of the Waking Universe," then alternated
between these two Pollard-penned releases, with classic tracks from the
"old" Guided By Voices thrown in for good measure. From "Not in My
Airforce" (a very good CD), the band kicked it out with "I've Owned You
For Centuries", "Quicksilver", "Flat Beauty", "John Strange School" "Get
Under It" and "Psychic Pilot Clocks Out."

Five songs into the set, GBV cranked the old Gem track "I Am A Tree"
(from Mag Earwhig!) - this was the nearest to a full-out moshpit that
we'd get this evening. "I Am a Tree" rocks hard. Pollard & Co, to a
clued-in audience, poured on nearly all the songs from Mag Earwhig! --
Old Grunt, Bulldog Skin, Little Lines, the soon-to-be-classic Not Behind
the Fighter Jet, Bomb in the Beehive, Sad if I Lost You, Now to War,
Knock em' Flying and Choking Tara. And digging deeper into his
voluminous back catalog for live shows than ever before, GBV spun out
"Stabbing a Star", "Captain's Dead" (from 1987's Devil Between My Toes
LP), a glorious rendition of 1993's "My Impression Now", and old classic
favorites like "Game of Pricks", Tractor Rape Chain", "I am A Scientist"
and "Lord of Overstock" (from 1996's critics' fave Under the Bushes
Under the Stars)

To an adoring crowd, GBV played three encores, and showed reverence to
Cleveland's place in rock's history with a couple of classic bar-band
nuggets - Johnny Kidd & the Pirates' 1962 classic "Shakin' All Over"
(although played more in a Who Live at Leeds manner), and Chuck Berry's
"Round & Round."

To a man, 39-yr-old Bob Pollard rocks out. Do yourself a favor and see
Guided By Voices when they come to your town. This band has the
capacity, skills, looks and songs to really hit big this year. Go see
'em now and understand fully how rock should be carried off in hot,
sweaty clubs.

brian.mikesell@gbv.com