This Saturday will be the last time I ever get to see my all-time favorite live band, Guided By Voices, who plan to break up after their current tour. This is GBV Week!
It’s 1997 and I’ve settled into my return to San Francisco life. GBV have settled in, too. They are on a one-new-album, two-tours annually groove. They clearly love coming to San Francisco and play some great gigs here.
Weird stories are coming out of the GBV camp, principally that Bob has fired the entire band and grafted another band, Pittsburgh’s Cobra Verde, into its place. It turns out that Cobra Verde has already been fired and GBV is touring for the first time with the line-up that will stay pretty constant for the next 6-7 years (though in true Spinal Tap fashion, there seems to be a rotating set of drummers). Meanwhile, Bob has opened the floodgates and is now putting out about five albums a year on his private label.
My personal favorite gig comes on the “Mag Earwhig!” tour, or maybe it’s the next year. We’re at Maritime Hall, an outmoded union hall next to a freeway entrance that’s being used mostly for stoner shows. It’s like being in a high school gymnasium, but the promoters have made a few touches to spruce the place up — fried chicken in the back and a ‘psychedelic’ light show to the side of the stage, which obviously delights Bob to no end.
The manager runs drink after drink on to the stage. Angela manages to get in front of Nate and do the unthinkable: steal the Jack Daniels bottle. Nate nearly jumps into the audience for it, dropping to his knees and begging in mid-song. Angela ransoms it for beer from the onstage cooler.
Hysteria seems to build with every song. And there’s a lot of them! GBV has become the marathon band! Two and a half hours and a song every two minutes. What’s that? 75 songs??? And of course we have to drink when Bob drinks.
Bob closes with the announcement,”OK, kids. There’s no more beer in the cooler. And you know what that means: there’s no more reason to be here.” Sure enough, they run through one more song and are gone for another six months.
[Soundtrack]
Guided By Voices – Your Name Is Wild.mp3
Guided By Voices – Little Lines.mp3
Guided By Voices – Don’t Stop Now.mp3
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