{"id":862,"date":"2012-09-27T02:22:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-27T02:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=862"},"modified":"2026-06-27T02:23:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T02:23:07","slug":"guided-by-voices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=862","title":{"rendered":"Guided by Voices"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

September 2012, 40 Watt, Athens, Ga.<\/strong><\/p>\n

To the right of the drum kit sat the blue cooler with its never-ending supply. Robert Pollard walked center stage, with a half-empty tequila bottle in hand, took a swig and graced the mic. \u201cHello Athens,\u201d he said, scanning the riotous 40 Watt crowd. \u201cWe\u2019re pickled and we\u2019re ready to rock.\u201d<\/p>\n

For two hours and several encores, Guided By Voices did what it does best \u2014 incite the crowd, play a shitload of songs, drink, smoke and inhabit the spirit of punk music in its purest form. You listen to GBV through speakers and it comes across as catchy in almost a power-pop way, with gleaming choruses and inventive bridges. Watch it on stage and it\u2019s a primal beast of musical fury, seething in a wave of guitars, led by a man who can drink all he wants and still kick high over his head with fierce precision.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s as if Ernest Hemingway wrote a play and set it to music. GBV\u2019s songs are short and direct, with titles of mundane moments that carry a quiet elegance (\u201cDoughnut for a Snowman,\u201d \u201cRoll of the Dice,\u201d \u201cKick in the Head\u201d). There\u2019s no sense of dawdling \u2014 the songs come in tight procession, moving quickly from one thought to another. There\u2019s the alcohol \u2014 always a running theme in Hemingway novels \u2014 which fueled the show for moments of levity. At one point, Pollard brought the tequila to the front of the stage, sending it off to a hand in the crowd. \u201cCome join me in my death,\u201d he exclaimed.<\/p>\n

Minutes later the bottle came back empty, but was joined by a full bottle of Crown Royal. This is a crowd that preps. This is a crowd that wants to live.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s the overt manliness \u2014 the near fights, the unbridled aggression, the roving mosh pit, the fists in the air. Replace the crowd with bulls and you have Pamplona 1925: Raw, fraught with danger and endlessly entertaining. It\u2019s been years since I attended a show and left fully spent just by watching the spectacle. I was a mosh pit guy 25 years ago \u2014 no more \u2014 but GBV had me almost in the fray, remembering those DK shows I attended in the 1980s, mixing it up with the big boys boasting blades on their boots.<\/p>\n

During 120 minutes and 50 or so songs, GBV turned back time and reveled in the domain of excess and frivolity, gratuitous for good reason, telling the stories of everyday men. A Hemingway quote welled in my head, a coda for the night\u2019s display.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order to write about life first you must live it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another chapter in the books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

September 2012, 40 Watt, Athens, Ga. To the right of the drum kit sat the blue cooler with its never-ending supply. Robert Pollard walked center stage, with a half-empty tequila bottle in hand, took a swig and graced the mic. \u201cHello Athens,\u201d he said, scanning the riotous 40 Watt crowd. \u201cWe\u2019re pickled and we\u2019re ready […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":532,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[45,117],"class_list":["post-862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-concerts","tag-40-watt","tag-guided-by-voices"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=862"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":863,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862\/revisions\/863"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}