Photo by Ben Yakas/Gothamist
Northside Festival took over Brooklyn this weekend, with film screenings, food events, and over a hundred bands flooding the borough with culture and outdoor fun. The highlight of the entire weekend for us was the triumphant Saturday evening Guided By Voices show at McCarren Park. They may have been drinking Miller Light onstage, but there was nothing "less filling" about the thrilling, pummeling 40 song set from the "classic" lineup.
The reformed band brought boundless energy to the park, with the bulk of their set stemming from their classic albums (including Bee Thousand and Alien Lanes) and EPs from between 1992-1996. The set was a giant blur of highlights, mixing exuberant crowd pleasers such as "Game of Pricks," "Exit Flagger," and "Echos Myron" with obscurities and rarities—the chunky "Expecting Brainchild" was particularly revelatory. There were the mighty drum rolls of "Shocker in Gloomtown", the chirpy "yeahs" in "A Good Flying Bird," and the epic time shifts of the glorious "Over the Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox." The evening ended the only way it could have, with weary bodies slowly slamming against each other to "Weed King."
The continuing "Hallways Of Shatterproof Glass" reunion tour has sharpened the band without dulling the songs—and they sounded even tighter than their last two NYC shows in the fall and winter. Robert Pollard charmingly slurred his way through the three-encore evening, enthusiastically introducing nearly every song, slamming Cuervo Gold, and effusively praising Brooklyn. Bassist Greg Demos thrashed his drenched head, drummer Kevin Fennel made endearingly creepy drummer faces, demure guitarist Tobin Sprout provided a calm presence, and guitarist Mitch Mitchell was the quintessential badass, cigarette dangling perilously from his mouth during the entire show.
But the best part of any GBV show is the sincerity with which their fans give themselves over to the live experience—this is not a band for standing around feeling self-conscious. Many have said you can't entirely get the band without seeing them play out their classic rock fantasies onstage—they carry an infectious joy, which seems to ensnare even on-the-fence observers. As Matthew Perpetua of Fluxblog so eloquently points out, Pollard inspires the inner fist pumper in his fans: "most everyone sings along, people move and point and jump and flail about, and...people sing along to each other, to total strangers. It seems like you're all suddenly friends and bonding over these impossibly catchy, ineffably weird, incredibly sad rock and roll songs."
Below, you can check out a surprisingly excellent sounding video of "My Impression Now" and "Some Drilling Implied," as well as the complete 40 song set list:
