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Revolver - Australia
By
Anna Sarris
Special thanks to Alex for transcribing!
Guided by Voices
Turnstyle
Showbag
at Newtown RSL
February 26, 2000
Never in history of rock and rool, have I ever seen more empty beer can ON stage than off stage... but all that has changed now that I have experienced the rock and roll show that is Guided by Voices. Beer is beer is beer when it comes to live music, but that BATHTUB of a bucket full of beer on stage might as well have been an extra musician. It got a lot of showtime, it got a lot of applause. People were even chanting "GVB" instead of G B V - including the band themselves. Even I canted "GVB", fist punching in the air, and I wouldn't touch VB if it was the last drink on the planet, had a penis, and sung me Pat Boone songs under a willow tree. I was just amazed, impressed, horrified that band could still play after consuming so much beer, swigging bottles of Jim Beam and smoking 1000 cigarettes. And they played beautifully for two and a half hours! The singing was power pop perfection and if you missed Guided by Voices, you missed one of the most manic, most blissfully pop nights of your life. Why we all started chanting "Jerry Jerry" like we were on the Springer show, I can't explain... this band is just strange... The sight and sound of Showbag surprised me as I did not see them advertised anywhere. What I did see and hear, I liked. Catchy pop tunes with a bright vocalist and heaps of bounce. The lack of audience enthusiasm annoyed me as the band were well worth dancing to. Similarly, the eccentric mellow grooves of Turnstyle moved me in several directions physically but the crowd were a bit boring... except for a the big uncle-looking guy who stood up close and personal to the band. Cute, cute pop tunes delivered with lazy, sitting-on-a-porch-on-a-hot-day vocals. Very sparkly guitars in Cologne, which reminded me of the Eels, and a trippy instrumental to end their set which has just the right amount of distortion, daggy casio, and sweet egg shaker rhythm. Bob Pollard came out with a VB in one hand, and a cigarette in the other. He leaned into the microphone incredibly gracefully and introduced the first song - the groovy Don't Stop Now. A typical Guided by Voices tune with Pollard's shiny valorous vocals and such lustrous chords. The huge crowd were dancing right away and so was Pollard. He pulled out all the moves - the microphone cord swinging was a particular favourite of his, and this high kicks... DAMN high! And never once did he fall over. We all loved it, as the band seemed to love it. Two and a half hours of ridiculously catchy tunes played with such vigorous energy. It was all rather electric and very generous. The band and excitable crowd (cooooooorazy fans up the front) were feeding off each other all night and the music and atmosphere became progressively more and more raucous. These animals played a lot of their new stuff including Teenage FBI, Drangons Awake! and one of the most perfect pop tunes ever written - the glorious Surgical Focus - a perfect cocktail of catchy harmonies, fast adventurous drums and such a gorgeous melody delivered with Pollard's impenetrably clear voice. The band also entertained with the ROCK guitar songs such as you In Stitches, and exciting, rump/headshakers I Am A Tree and Motor Away. They also played some Highway to Hell which... didn't surprise me. GBV may be kinda old and quite faaaaaaaarked on the piss onstage, the bass player may look like one of the Monkees gone terribly, horribly wrong (was that him stumbling down the Town Hall steps at 5am holding his head so it wouldn't drop off?), but they clearly loved performing tonight and created a raw, hilarious atmosphere. I saw several people hugging in the audience as they played, big funny looking men dancing like girls, and everyone was left with a big shimmering smile on their face... especially the bass player. Loved the rock star salutes, loves the intoxicating force of these talented popsters, loved the music most of all, inciting us to stamp our feet so much we could have pounded right through the floor and busted up a few pokies... not such a bad thing really.