Metromix Live - Guided By Voices
THE CLUB IS OPEN
Prior to Friday night’s show, the last time 90s lo-fi rockers Guided By Voices came to town was in August of 2004 at Uptown Mix, a hugely popular outdoor summer concert series that took place where the Adelicia now stands in midtown. The band didn’t even make it through their set. Lead singer Robert Pollard lived up to his reputation as one of indie rock’s hardest partyers and got so soused he could barely even finish a sentence, much less a song.
But that showing, combined with the fact that the band has achieved a near cult-like following of crazed hard drinkers, just seemed like all the more reason to welcome them to the stage at the Cannery Ballroom for the third edition of the Metromix Live concert series presented by Lexus of Nashville.
Since the announcement of the gig, and much to our benefit, local music writers had been chittering about the band making a rare stop in Music City fresh off their classic lineup reunion tour. It was one of only two dates that had been announced for 2011 thus far and their first show in the New Year.
The stage at the Cannery had been raised one foot, offering upgraded sightlines to those not brave enough to fight their way down front and the audience was peppered with famous faces. Jack Lawrence of The Greenhornes, Dead Weather and The Raconteurs was spotted posting up near the end of the bar and My Morning Jacket’s Jim James and members of The Black Keys both fell at the top of the VIP guest list.
“Have you ever seen indie rockers this happy?” said Andrew Mischke, booking agent and mixologist extraordinaire for the venue just moments before the band appeared.
Indeed just as the opening act, Times New Viking, another Ohio lo-fi group, was ending their set, the mostly male crowd seemed to quadruple in size as did the energy in the room.
For nearly two hours, Guided By Voices put on a stellar, eardrum popping set complete with high kicks, microphones used as lassos and rockstar moves reminiscent of a KISS show. It was honestly astounding to witness, especially from a band of seasoned dudes with a tenacious affinity for the bottle that chain-smoked their entire way through their set. I guess that’s just what you call stamina, friends.
But even that wasn’t enough for the rowdy fans who chanted “G-B-V!!” wildly until the band returned to the stage for not one, not two, but three vigorous encores.
And true to form and their collective characters, the band didn’t end the party when they walked off stage. Instead they stayed well into the wee hours to make sure that every last cent of their bar tab didn’t go to waste.
