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!
GBV continues to put albums out on Matador, but somehow I find them all vaguely disappointing. They still have terrific singles (linked below), the albums still leap to life live, but the filler material and Bob’s recent lurch towards prog leaves me a bit colder than in the past.
Nevertheless, I’m always there at the shows, still coming every six months, still with the formula of playing mostly the new record the first time through and more of a hits set the second time through. I’m still introducing people to the band and acting as a ticketing ringleader for each gig. I nearly have the UK-based worldwide CEO and CFO out for a night at Bimbo’s, but an unhappy budget meeting sees them begging off at the last minute.
Somehow I sense that they’re not having as much fun as usual. Only Bob is drinking, not the rest of the band, and not really that much. Has he put a no-drinking on stage rule into effect? No, that seems unlikely.
Not a couple of weeks after this gig, bass player Tim Tobias — who always seemed the happiest guy on stage, the band’s biggest fan — leaves the group. I’m not surprised; he sort of seemed to mope through the show and he’s lost a lot of weight. Maybe health problems? A solo release by Bob and Todd is mysteriously downgraded to a limited edition of 500.
A gig at Slim’s in October 2003 seems to set some kind of milestone. They’ve just been to SF a couple of months before and the club is only half-full. They are completely tanked. Bob starts off with the announcement that “We’re here to support our new album. And we’ll probably here again next year to support our new album. We’ll probably be here every year for the rest of our lives to support our new album.” This doesn’t sound like a happy announcement. Sure enough, halfway through the show Bob goes into a semi-intelligible 20-minute monologue about the history of the band, how all the critics complain his albums sound the same (they don’t), and a host of other things on his mind. Then they all do shots. Then they take a piss break. Most of the crowd, including all of my friends, decide they’d rather party somewhere else. It’s a depressing night.
So when GBV announces in Spring that they plan to discontinue the band after playing one more tour, it’s not really that big a surprise.
[Soundtrack]
Guided By Voices – My Kind Of Soldier.mp3
Guided By Voices – Everywhere With Helicopter.mp3
Guided By Voices – The Best Of Jill Hives.mp3
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