A Miracle Cure For My Sorrow



Guided By Voices @ Irving Plaza 12/4/2004

Demons Are Real / I Drove A Tank / Girls Of Wild Strawberries / My Impression Now / Bull Spears / Glow Boy Butlers / Do The Earth / Red Ink Superman / Gold Star For Robot Boy / Sleepover Jack / Lord Of Overstock / Lethargy / Pendulum / Window Of My World / Solsbury Hill / It’s Only Natural / Dayton, Ohio 19-something and 5 / Pink Gun / Sons Of Apollo / Everybody Thinks I’m A Raincloud (When I’m Not Looking) / Back To The Lake / Squirmish Frontal Room / Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory / Queen Of Cans And Jars / (Bob rants about how much Bright Eyes sucks) / Navigating Flood Regions / Red Men And Their Wives / Fair Touching / Beg For A Wheelbarrow / Alone, Stinking, and Unafraid / Glad Girls / Gonna Never Have To Die / Secret Star / I Am A Tree / Pimple Zoo / Watch Me Jumpstart / Game Of Pricks / He’s The Uncle / Drinker’s Peace / Chief Barrel Belly / Exit Flagger / Johnny Appleseed / Unleashed! The Large Hearted Boy / Cut-Out Witch / Buzzards And Dreadful Crows / Murder Charge // Liar’s Tale / Sad If I Lost It / Things I Will Keep / Motor Away / Tractor Rape Chain / Shocker In Gloomtown / I Am A Scientist / Smothered In Hugs

So that’s it. No more GBV shows for me.

There are a bunch of songs that I certainly would’ve liked to have seen one last time (or for the first time), but I can’t complain too much. “Squirmish Frontal Room” was a great thrill and somewhat poignant for me since it was the very first GBV song that I ever heard (via a CMJ cd, if you were wondering). I sort of knew that, “Do The Earth” and “Gold Star For Robot Boy” were in the cards since I’ve been keeping up with the recent setlists, so “Lord Of Overstock” ended up being my big “I can’t believe they’re actually playing it!” moment. Seriously, I still can’t believe they played that one.

The audience seemed to be comprised mainly of (over?)zealous Postal Blowfish-subscribing Pollard fanatics. As you can imagine, the most hardcore GBV fans are a unique combination of boozehound and OCD freak, so you get a lot of very drunk people shouting along to incredibly obscure songs like “Beg For A Wheelbarrow,” “Alone, Stinking, and Unafraid,” and “Johnny Appleseed.” It’s a lot more fun to see GBV shows when you’re surrounded by these people, though some of the more shitfaced members of the audience can be a bit of a pain.

Ultimately, GBV shows are more about the audience than the band’s performance. The band aren’t a particularly strong live act – they just pump out the songs so that the audience can respond and sing along. Every good GBV show that I ever saw was more like karaoke than a traditional rock show, regardless of Pollard’s high kicks and mic swinging. I really don’t think that it’s an accident or coincidence that Bob’s vocal levels were buried under the guitars at every single GBV show that I’ve ever seen.



Chavez @ Irving Plaza 12/4/2004

Repeat The Ending / Nailed To The Blank Spot / Break Up Your Band / Peeled Out Too Late / Laugh Track / Our Boys Will Shine Tonight / Ghost By The Sea / You Must Be Stopped / Wakeman’s Air / Unreal Is Here / Flight 96

Chavez “Break Up Your Band” – I wish that more bands played heavy rock music like Chavez. Their music was nearly devoid of macho posturing and aggression, almost as though they approached guitar rock from an entirely clinical perspective. They were all about the physical sensation of prog metal without any of the lyrical and subcultural baggage. Chavez really ought to consider getting back together full time – as evidenced by this reunion show, they are still very tight and impressive as a live band, and their music is probably a lot more sellable now in the post-emo indie marketplace than it ever was back in the age of Malkmus and Pollard. (Click here to buy it from Amazon.)

FYI: I don’t do “link exchanges.” I only link to sites that I read on a regular or semi-regular basis.