April 21st, 2006 5:31am
When Every Fake-It Decides To Make It
Robert Pollard @ Irving Plaza, 4/20/2006
Gold / I Surround You Naked / Blessed In An Open Head / Get A Faceful / Light Show / Dancing Girls and Dancing Men / Supernatural Car Lover / Mute Superstar / Flowering Orphan / The Right Thing / Make Use / Hammer In Your Eyes / Kick Me and Cancel / U.S. Mustard Company / Dolphins of Color / Boxing About / Maggie Turns To Flies / The Numbered Head / Serious Birdwoman (You Turn Me On) / I’m A Strong Lion / 50 Year Old Baby / Fresh Threats, Salad Shooters and Zip Guns / Conquerer of the Moon / I Feel Gone Again / Choking Tara (Creamy Version) / I’m A Widow / A Boy In Motion / Love Is Stronger Than Witchcraft / Look At Your Life / 7th Level Shutdown / Get Under It / Kingdom Without / Recovering // Girls of Wild Strawberries / Game of Pricks / Sad If I Lost It / Gold Star For Robot Boy / Little Lines / My Valuable Hunting Knife / My Kind of Soldier / Don’t Stop Now
Robert Pollard “Love Is Stronger Than Witchcraft” – In most ways, this was not very different from seeing a Guided By Voices show. Unlike a GBV show, this set was relatively light on oldies and beer-fueled singalongs. Also unlike a GBV show, the band was tight from start to finish, and the sound mix wasn’t murky and Bob’s vocals were crystal clear. Jon Wurster is by far the best drummer to ever play with Bob, and his performance over the course of two and a half hours was consistently heavy-hitting, energetic, and dynamic. He does wonders for the material, especially on tunes like “Dancing Girls and Dancing Men,” “The Numbered Head,” “Maggie Turns To Flies,” and “The Right Thing.” The latter was almost certainly the single best live performance I’ve ever seen by a Pollard-fronted band, both for the inspired performance, and the band’s low-key theatrics. Tommy Keene’s presence is very positive as well, especially for his contributions as a keyboard player, something I think Pollard’s desperately needed for quite some time. Though I don’t have anything against Doug Gillard or Tobin Sprout, Keene seems to be a much better influence on Bob in terms of trying to broaden the range of sounds in the show.
After six years of pining, I finally got to see Pollard play “Choking Tara,” and with the full-band arrangement no less! I suppose that’s what I get for being very patient. I was quite glad to see them do “Sad If I Lost It,” “Little Lines,” and “Mute Superstar” as well, though it does make me wonder why he’s all of sudden playing so much from the Mag Earwhig album after ignoring it for so long on GBV tours. (Click here to buy it from Merge Records.)