July 9, 2012

Show review: Guided By Voices at Central Park Summerstage – 7/7

Amidst Saturday’s sweltering heat, New York’s inaugural CBGB Festival brought the reunited ‘classic’ Guided By Voices lineup to Central Park Summerstage for a free show with Cloud Nothings, The War On Drugs and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.

In keeping with the spirit of its titular historic rock club, the CBGB Festival put on numerous shows across NYC this weekend spanning the genres of punk and independent rock. The weekend featured artist showcases across thirty-plus venues, film and music industry conferences, film screenings, a ‘Spirits Festival,’ a free Times Square show featuring Superchunk, The Hold Steady, Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah (plus several more), and an unfortunate stabbing incident involving punk outfit Cro-Mags. Unfortunately for my Boston-dwelling self, Saturday afternoon’s Central Park show was all I was able to catch. The drive was hell, but how could I resist a free lineup this solid, especially considering GBV’s lack of upcoming Boston tour dates?

The aforementioned hellish New York traffic prevented me from catching Cloud Nothings, but my thoughts on their current tour behind this year’s still awesome Attack on Memory can be found here. The War on Drugs took the stage shortly after I arrived for a set of breezy songs reminiscent of a more spaced-out take on former member Kurt Vile’s current Springsteen-isms. Shoegazing jams built around hazy swirls of guitars, keys and vocals matched with a head-bobbing rhythm section that kept the set propulsive. Vocalist/guitarist Adam Granduciel joked about the songs keeping everyone cool, but in reality this was a set perfectly attuned to the dreamlike daze that hundred degree-plus temperatures produce

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart are another band I’ve already had the pleasure of seeing/writing about this year. Their live show remains essentially the same, albeit abbreviated. An even ratio of songs from their 2009 self-titled record and last year’s Belong remained, as did Kip Berman’s boundless enthusiasm. On this much larger outdoor stage, the band did feel slightly thin at times. Whether due to mixing issues or their own choice, the Pains sounded a bit more jangle-pop than shoegaze this time around. It was hardly a detriment though. “Come Saturday,” “This Love Is Fucking Right” and “My Terrible Friend” are infectiously catchy tunes regardless It’s also impossible to slight anyone still performing as energetically as Berman in that kind of heat.

The men, the myths, the legends, Guided By Voices, were on last. Massive cheers erupted as Mitch Mitchell, Greg Demos, Kevin Fennell, Tobin Sprout and frontman/mastermind Robert Pollard took the stage. They may look slightly aged, but don’t let it fool you. All the hallmarks of legendary GBV shows past are here. Pollard’s high-kicking and mic-twirling is as exuberant as ever, and Mitchell wields his Les Paul like a much younger man in a much cheesier band. The beer was in no short supply either, with a cooler of red cups situated at center stage for the whole show. Pollard informed us they couldn’t have cans because last time he had tossed some into the crowd and nearly injured a few people. This was not only GBV’s classic lineup, but their classic atmosphere as well.

This lineup was largely responsible for GBV’s most fondly remembered moments, including beloved nineties LPs Propeller, Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes. Their first round of reunion shows seemed to place them squarely in the realm of nostalgia, wherein they relied entirely on classic cuts from these and other records of years past. A sudden bout of creativity has evidently seized them though, and two new records (with a third on the way) have been released this year alone. Pollard’s absurdly prolific back catalog (with GBV, as himself, or in numerous other bands) confirms that he’s never been one to creatively linger in any single place for too long, so this onslaught of new material with his old collaborators isn’t exactly surprising.

The band hardly seem shy about their new material. They confidently tore into a series of songs from this year’s Let’s Go Eat the Factory and Class Clown Spots a UFO before revisiting any early material. Neither 2012 album reaches the instant-classic status of the band’s heyday, but they’re both chock-full of the catchy melodies, alternately bizarre and insightful lyrics and off-the-cuff charm that GBV have always been known for. “Roll of the Dice, Kick in the Head,” “The Unsinkable Fats Domino,” “Keep It In Motion” and “We Won’t Apologize for the Human Race” all felt particularly at home in this set. It was fan favorites like “Game of Pricks,” “The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory” and “Echos Myron” that drew the largest response from the crowd, inciting a whole lot of beer-spilling pseudo-moshing and fist-pumping singalongs. The band made no distinctions though, delivering songs old and new with equally joyous enthusiasm.

Perhaps what’s most endearing about this current incarnation of Guided By Voices is the degree to which they seem like a bunch of normal guys who somehow stumbled into the role of indie rock superheroes, and now want to have as much fun with it as possible. The quintet seem to genuinely enjoy themselves on stage, and play up their goofy rockstar posturing with a playful sense of self-awareness. Pollard’s stage banter was consistently hilarious, Mitchell’s guitar playing theatrically entertaining, and Demos’ handing the band’s remaining beers to the front row at the end of the set weirdly charming. I don’t think any member of the crowd would’ve begrudged a ‘greatest hits’ style set, but in a way it was more thrilling to see evidence of a happily-reunited GBV truly sticking to their roots, snapping back into a forward-moving entity after a year of indulgence in their past.

The War on Drugs: