Robert Pollard's Boston Spaceships, Highline Ballroom, October 1, 2008

   

    I'm going to try to keep this one reasonably short, because usually when I begin talking about Robert Pollard things tend to get a bit long winded.  The Cliff's Notes version: Guided by Voices was my favorite band for several years there, and although my appreciation of Uncle Bob's post GbV output has declined, I'm not sure if that's Bob's fault (worse songs, boring production) or mine (unwillingness to spend enough time with the new shit for me to truly "get" it).  Regardless, for me, Bob coming to town to perform live is an event no matter what. 

    Okay, I can't resist: a bit of backstory: I really began going to GbV shows in earnest around the time that they announced their retirement, seeing at least 7 shows in '04 (including all three nights of their legendary Irving Plaza run in early December) and, yes, I flew out to Chicago for the last 2 GbV shows ever New Year's '04-'05.  Saw Bob's solo band four times in '06, with the last time I saw a Robert Pollard-fronted band live being November 13th, 2006 at Bowery Ballroom, the night before a mysterious onstage meltdown in Philadelphia which forewarned the cancellation of the remainder of that tour.  That was a great show although the final song was marred by Stagerushing Superfan Douchefuck (#3).  Suffice it to say that I was overjoyed when the Boston Spaceships tour was announced. 

    On this night, I got to Highline Ballroom by 8:30, right around the time the openers were scheduled to take the stage.  Never having been here before, I was impressed with the place: kind of upscale for a rock club, not unlike Studio B or (le) poisson rouge, and security was lax.  And it's a quick walk from the 8th Avenue L so that's a huge plus for me.  Much to my delight they were serving Sam Adams bottles for $5, and I partook liberally. 

    Detroit's The High Strung took the stage shortly and delivered their brand of tuneful power pop with plenty of enthusiasm.  Kind of standard/good opening band fare here, and given Bob's fetish for bands with a similar sound, it wasn't tough to understand why they were on the bill.

    Boston Spaceships took the stage a little after 9:30-ish, and as usual I found myself front and center amongst the true drunken diehards.  A couple of blacked out 40-something dudes who were about my size (read: fucking enormous) were thrashing about up front and basically crushing people, with a couple of tiny females in particular being pinballed back and forth between those dudes and my backside.  I only wound up lasting 10 songs or so up front as a result of my tiny bladder, but it was good to get a feel for the true Pollard fanatics in the room.  My unfamiliarity with Bob's last five or so albums really proved an impediment to truly enjoying what was going on musicwise; the majority of the 35-song proper set was taken from the Boston Spaceships Brown Submarine album and the Robert Pollard Is Off to Business solo joint from earlier '08, with a few scattered jams thrown in for good measure from the Takeovers and Psycho and the Birds, GbV's Suitcase compilations, as well as a few unreleased tracks from upcoming projects. 

    For me, the real fun began during the first encore, which included "Crutch Came Slinking" from King Shit and the Golden Boys and "Sensational Gravity Boy," both great songs that I would never have expected to hear live in this lifetime.  Encore one closed with a ripping version of "Game of Pricks" before the soundman turned on the houselights and music... obviously he wasn't expecting a 2+ hour set complete with _two_ encores.  Encore #2 followed with several great GbV chestnuts, among them "Motor Away," "A Salty Salute," "Tractor Rape Chain," "Cut-Out Witch" and probably others I'm forgetting (I was pretty trashed by this point).  I slid over into the pit for some old school pogoing and all was well.

    Well, so much for keeping this one nice and short.  I feel that I should mention that post show I groundscored a Boston Spaceships shirt which had been abandoned/trampled in the pit.  Not too shab, and it made me feel better about having paid for so many beers.  (Yes, I'm still hung over at the time of this writing). 

     A couple final notes:

• Bob drank more than his fair share by his own hand (Miller Lite and Cuervo) and at the hands of the crowd (many, many shots).  Bob quote (after doing a shot): "whoa, that's the good stuff.  Thank you, but I prefer the bad stuff."
• Tommy Keene is playing the part of Doug Gillard (who was in attendance, with his wife) this time around in that he's really the musical glue of the live Boston Spaceships lineup.  Nailed his solos and generally kept shit together.  That being said Chris Slusarenko (bassist during GbV's final days) definitely held his own as a rhythm guitarist.
• Also in the house: GbV drummer Kevin March, Bob's wife. 
• If you're interested in the setlist I'm pretty sure it was identical to this except for the addition of the super-awesome all-GbV 2nd encore.
• It wasn't only the soundman that was faked out by the second encore: over half the crowd had already left by the beginning of said second encore.
• Bob still knows how to rock.  Lots of high kicks and assorted prancing and hilarious banter.  He brought up the incident from December '04 at Irving Plaza when he went into a drunken tirade that basically culminated in him saying "Bright Eyes sucks" and it turning out that Conor Oberst was actually in the audience that night. 

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    So, as far as tonight... I'm leaving for the weekend Friday morning to attend a buddy's bachelor party in DC, and I really want to watch tonight's Veep debate, so I might just stay in.  Should I feel particularly frisky I may make it out to Sam Champion at Mercury Lounge, although that seems like a longshot at this hour.  Not sure about next week; only show I have on my "must" list is Hull at Europa on Thursday.  See ya then.

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NOW LISTENING: Krallice - Krallice

Man, this record fucking rips.  Hardcore thrashing and grinding punctuated with some legitimately fantastic melodic segments.  Seen these guys twice this year so far and I'm going to try to get out to their October 8th show at Knitting Factory.  Legit, this one would be top 15 if I rewrote my Best Albums of 2008 so far list again today.

Comments

[Big Jake]

I can't believe there was a second encore! With the house lights up & music on, I left with most of the crowd!

[sluggo]

that was brief?