Motor away, Jay. Motor away.
Prolific indie-rockers Guided By Voices played to a raucous, boozy sell-out crowd at the Black Cat on Saturday.
Last night, Guided by Voices played at the Black Cat to a sell-out crowd. And leading the fans was the White House’s own Jay Carney, who introduced the band:
From the early 1980s until their breakup in 2004, Guided By Voices built a reputation as one of the great live acts in rock-and-roll. Armed with some of the best material in all of indie rock — thanks to frontman Robert Pollard’s inspired, ultra-prolific songwriting — GBV’s various incarnations consistently enthralled its loyal fans with dynamically shambolic, three-to-four-hour marathon performances fueled by massive amounts of alcohol. Expectations were high as GBV played a sold-out 9:30 Club on Thursday night with its recently-reunited “classic” (1993-96) lineup featuring Tobin Spout and Mitch Mitchell on guitar, Greg Demos on bass and Kevin Fennell on drums. The Ohio-based quintet delivered a solid, if surprisingly brief, two-hour performance that featured a sterling set list, but — if only because it rarely achieved the exhilarating heights of past GBV extravaganzas — ultimately felt like a slight disappointment.
Bob Pollard and Guided By Voices announced in April that their current tour, entitled The Electric Conclusion Tour would be there last ever, making Saturday’s gig at the 9:30 Club their last ever D.C. performance. DCist was on hand to chronicle this grand event, and needless to say, the band went out with a bang. At around 11:30 p.m., the crowd was treated to a video retrospective chronicling GBV’s 21 years together. And yes, most…
DCist usually laments the state of shows here in the nations capital. Often passed over for the bigger markets of Philadelphia or New York, the D.C. never seems to get a fair shake when it comes to the concerts that all the cool kids wanna go to. Its so unfair! We have some great musical venues; when are we going to get a steady influx of good live bands? Well, it seems the times, they…
