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Reuters
Apr 10 2001 2:30AM

Pollard's Guided by Voices emerges from "Isolation"


HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Since forming the band in Ohio in the early '80s, Guided by Voices singer-songwriter Robert Pollard has always managed to camouflage his natural gifts for dramatic hook and pop melody with a prolific series of purposely low-fi recordings that generally appealed only to a limited part of the college music scene.

But there's no denying that the band's new Rob Schnapf-produced album "Isolation Drills" (TVT) is the most straight-ahead collection that Pollard has released, inspired more than ever by commercial '70s rock like Cheap Trick. As well, this current touring version of GbV is as strong and cohesive a unit as Pollard has ever assembled.

At the filled House of Blues on Friday, Guided by Voices raced through more than three dozen of Pollard's fractured fairy tales -- including many from "Isolation Drills," as well as some from his solo albums -- during an entertaining two-hour-plus performance that displayed the singer's infamous Jeckle & Hyde routine: part piper, part jester.

Pollard polished off beer after beer as he performed his songs, serving himself from a well-placed iced chest in front of drummer Jon McCann, and even sharing many bottles with the fans up front. Occasionally, a large bottle of something stronger was also sampled.

But instead of the indulgence creating an onstage monster, this familiar part of Pollard's routine appears to allow him to over and again reach those places in his soul from which he creates such singular gems as the "Glad Girls," the lead single from the new album, and the cryptic and muscular "The Enemy," two of the evening's most engaging moments.

The enthusiastic and knowledgeable crowd was treated to lots of tracks, many of them obscure, from throughout Pollard's career, highlighted by the new GbV track "Skills Like This" and the band's 1994 single "I Am a Scientist," as well as an odd, late-set medley of their 50-second b-side "Tropical Robots" and "In Stitches," one of the standout tracks from 1999's Ric Ocasek-produced "Do the Collapse" album.

Pollard and band closed the long show with a pair of encore sets, capped off by a cover of the Who's "Baba O'Reilly." Rarely are the lyrics "they're all wasted" sung with such relish as when Pollard gets ahold of them.

Reuters/Variety