September 29, 2003, Roadhouse, Manchester UK
Gig prices in the un-UK have really shot through the roof of late,
probably because gigs are selling out fast. Whilst record sales slump
due to the utter bovine idiocy of the record industry, people are
partying on eternally with blasts of rock music, loud and proud. A
tenner is a right bargain for over two hours of top notch tunes from
the legendary Guided By Voices. The first few tunes sounded good
enough, but when some inspired heckler called out for Subspace Biographies
I waded down the front and counted them in with a cheeky Wire homage
recognition "154!" Lynchpin teacher and genius lyricist Robert Pollard
sang the keyboard parts with "Ba ba!" abandon, which was hilarious. He
doesn't do the high kicks anymore, or if he did it was while I wasn't
watching, but he did stick his head in his beer bottle ice box to cool
off between songs. Aside from Bob, the line up has changed completely
since the first time I saw them at the late lamented Leeds Duchess of
York around the time of Under the Bushes, Under the Stars, but
the intention has never shifted. They always deliver kick ass yet
intelligent rock with uplifting tunes that just make you want to party
on. That is unless you are the Badly Drawn Boy. They just make him want
to yell requests like everyone else. I got Motor Away, which Bob said was on the 42 song setlist already. He got Echos Myron
which he probably read off the setlist as the last song before encore
anyhow. The annoying thing was he kept yelling out a request for a
dedication to him, because he was insistant that he was Guided By
Voices' biggest fan. We were all their biggest fans that night. At
least the boring hippy didn't get up onstage and steal the bands' time
like he did with Flaming Lips. When I pay to see Flaming Lips play live
I want to see them play live, not cut the best song from their set so
someone else much less talented can play instead. Crap beards and
dreadful hats, necessary ego I suppose. There's something in this deal
for everyone. Did you really believe that you were the only one?