Bash and Pop

 We caught the latest tour by Guided by Voices during a trip to San Francisco, making it the 7th city that we've seen the band in.*

Robert Pollard and his band of big-league bashers attacked the Great American Music Hall on O'Farrell Street in San Francisco last week. As is often the case, ever since the Guided by Voices "farewell" tour of 2004, he brought a gun to a knife fight -- unleashing a bruising arena-rock sound in a boutique old theater. 

It wasn't the best sound that night, but it's a toss-up as to whether it was the venue's shortcomings or the band's insistence at turning things up to 11 for every song. They also tested the patience of the audience by jamming for nearly three hours, boldly mixing new songs in with the canonical. The wait, though, was well worth it, for an encore than concluded with these four horsemen of the apollardclypse: "Echoes Myron," "Chasing Heather Crazy," "Teenage FBI" and "Glad Girls." (And ... mic drop.)

GBV charged out of the gate by alternating new songs with classics from Pollard's ridiculously vast catalog. Pollard has fully embraced this version of the band, which has been pumping out several albums a year for the past five years or so, and he celebrates the recent songs as much as the old ones.

"The Disconnected Citizen," from last year's disc "It Can't Be Them ...," was given the vaunted spot directly after the concert anthem "A Salty Salute," and it has a jaunty "As We Go Up We Go Down" bounce suitable for "Alien Lanes." Similarly, the new track "Excited Ones" would not be out of place on the crunchy late '90s album "Mag Earwhig," the disc that introduced him to guitarist Doug Gillard, who to this day stands off to Pollard's left as both his motivating and moderating force. 

Gillard always gets the spotlight in concert for "Mag Earwhig's" propulsive "I Am a Tree," and you can tell that Pollard has a special fondness for that album, and rightfully so -- it's his White Album following on the heels of his perfect mid-'90s trilogy**, the equivalent of GBV's "Rubber Soul," "Revolver" and "Sgt. Pepper." Last week we were treated to three "Mag" tracks, including the shimmering "Jane of the Waking Universe" (a victim of the shoddy sound system) and, early in the show, a spirited rendering of "Not Behind the Fighter Jet."

"Re-Develop," a sweeping prog shanty from the newly released "Crystal Nuns Cathedral," has the potential to inspire future audience sing-alongs. One of the strongest new songs is the jittery "Dance of  Gurus."

Halfway through the 50 songs that were performed, the band settled into a groove with the pure pop nugget "The Best of Jill Hives," and an especially heartfelt rendering of "Twilight Campfighter." Afterward, Pollard explained the extra verve in his vocals: the friend who had come up with that puzzling title/inspiration (even Pollard still scratches his head over its meaning) died a year ago. Seven of the last 10 or so songs before the encore, most of them recent cuts, might stump all but the most diehard fans. We were then eagerly rewarded with the requisite "Game of Pricks" and "I Am a Scientist," two songs that never get old.

As Pollard gets ready this fall to apply for Medicare, he hasn't lost the thrill of fronting a swaggering rock band pounding out endless pop nuggets. 

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* - The other 6 cities, in order, are Chicago multiple times in the '90s and early '00s; San Diego and Los Angeles (and Chicago again) on the 2004 "farewell" tour; Portland when the classic lineup reunited in 2010; and more recently a New Year's Eve show in Brooklyn (2016) and a refurbished smelting plant in Atlanta (2018). If you count the 2017 Growlers' Beach Goth festival as Long Beach instead of L.A., then it's technically 8 cities total.

** Three perfect albums in a row: "Bee Thousand," "Alien Lanes" and "Under the Bushes, Under the Stars."