The Coast - Volume 9 Number 11 (#312)
August 9 - 16, 2001
By Iain Macleod

Guided By Voices
August 10 & 11, The Marquee Club

Robert Pollard, Guided By Voices' majority share holder, was on 
vocal, salute and drop-kick duty as he presented Halifax with the 
four Ps-pop, punk, psychedelic and prog. On his left, Doug Gillard 
held the sonic assault together with guitar chops and superior 
posturing. On the opposite side, Nate Farley was busy with power 
chords, whiskey swigs and numerous struggles with guitar chords, as 
Tim Tobias stood beside him on bass and smiles. All the while, 
looking like an escaped convict, fill-in drummer Jim MacPherson 
furiously punished his kit.

Specializing in short, fully cranked and somewhat half-realized rock 
songs-you would miss three if you went to the washroom-the band 
filled a two-hour set both nights with only a few breathers, and 
played the shit out of its latest, the polished Isolation Drills 
(including singles "Glad Girls" and "Chasing Heather Crazy"). 
Highlights included "Alone, Stinking and Unafraid" by Pollard's alias 
Lexo and the Leepers, "Game of Pricks" off Alien Lanes and selections from 1994's Bee 
Thousand. Pollard proudly plugged his latest solo release, 
Choreographed Man of War, as well as the well-received Speak Kindly 
of Your Volunteer Fire Department (both of the Fading Captain Series).

The only differences between the nights were the earplugs I invested 
in the second time around and the alcohol that flowed on stage. On 
Friday, there was enough drinking (countless beers, quarts of 
whiskey) and cigarette smoking (border-line pyrotechnics) to make Ben 
Affleck blush. What Saturday lacked in rock and roll spectacle, it 
made up for in coherent lyrics and a hung-over version of the Stones' 
"Wild Horses." You can't expect to hear all your faves when the 
mighty GBV takes the stage, but you'll see that rock is not dead-only 
drunk and living in Dayton, Ohio.