A Drop Of Secret Blood

Guided by Voices @ 5/23/2014
These Dooms / Table at Fool’s Tooth / A Good Flying Bird / A Bird with No Name / Alex and the Omegas / Authoritarian Zoo / Vote for Me Dummy / You Get Every Game / Game of Pricks / Xeno Pariah / Pan Swimmer / The Head / Buzzards and Dreadful Crows / Psychotic Crush / Wished I Was a Giant / Planet Score / Males of Wormwood Mars / How I Met My Mother / Record Level Love / Echos Myron / Zero Elasticity / Fast Crawl / Tractor Rape Chain / Ester’s Day / Fair Touching / Teenage FBI / Hat of Flames / All American Boy / Gold Star For Robot Boy / Littlest League Possible / The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory / No Transmission / Spiderfighter / Cool Planet / I Am A Scientist // The Challenge Is Much More / Unleashed! The Large-Hearted Boy / 14 Cheerleader Coldfront / Smothered in Hugs /// He Rises! Our Union Bellboy / Shocker in Gloomtown / Awful Bliss / Pimple Zoo / Motor Away /// Cut-Out Witch / Exit Flagger / Quality of Armor / A Salty Salute

Guided by Voices “Males of Wormwood Mars”

I was sorta wary about going to this show, mainly because I haven’t spent a great deal of time with the six post-reunion GBV records, and I don’t feel any particular sentimentality for the “classic lineup” of the band. I simply disagree with that – to me, the version of the live band anchored by Doug Gillard through the early ’00s is the one I love and associate with many great memories. But that was silly: GBV shows are always fun, and Bob Pollard has so much charisma that it’s easy to get on board with an onslaught of songs you only sorta know. I was never tuned out for the many recent songs in this show, and the generous helping of music from the Bee Thousand/Alien Lanes era is always going to be welcome, even if I do wish Pollard would play more from the long middle period of the band’s history. I’m definitely a lot more sold on the new songs, particularly those on this year’s Motivational Jumpsuit and Cool Planet – I think the first few nu-GBV records were a little uninspired, but Pollard and Tobin Sprout are in a good creative zone at the moment.

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