I’m sure that Guided By Voices’ fans can fill up stadiums. Or any other location you give ’em. They will know pretty much every song out of the 22 albums the indie rock titans from Dayton, Ohio issued since 1983. And they will sing it out loud. Yep, there are quite a few really cult American bands, but I think among them all Guided By Voices has one of the most fanatic following. So fanatic that there is even a self-proclaimed Guided By Voices Day, the date for which varies in each different city (in NYC it’s December 5!).
Guided By Voices are some of the most profilic bands out there as well – only in 2014 (which is a little over it’s first half) they already issued two LP’s – “Motivational Jumpsuit” followed by just issued “Cool Planet”. During their over 2 hour long setlist with whole three encores (!) we heard about 50 songs which is super colossal by itself. Among the tracks from the new album(s) there were also classics like “All American Boy”, “Game of Pricks” and “I Am A Scientist”.
I’ve seen very few bands that seem to have that much fun on stage. Robert Pollard and Tobin Sprout take turns on vocals, keeping the show interesting, while chugging bottles of whiskey and Bob occasionally sitting on the big beer cooler they bring with themselves on stage. There was cigarette smoking on stage, name dropping, funny stories were told… and everyone went wild!
After 30 years on stage GBV are true indie rock/lo-fi classics and absolutely must-see live act. More about them on http://www.gbv.com/. Now check some more pics from the show + a video!
