Not long into GUIDED BY VOICES' marathon set (** Please note GVB play for 2 1/2 hours and will be on stage EARLY** state the posters - in reality they top 2 hours and 40)I realise I'm not so much writing a review as making a list.
Bob Pollard , a front man in the traditional sense, throws out titles plucked from his epic back catalogue between swigs of Becks faster than I can write them down. Pretty soon I've decided a diagram might be more efficient, secure in the knowledge the song titles will more than account for my wordage.
"Red Ink Superman", "Bull Spears", "I'm a Trophy Mule In Particular" and "Things I Will Keep" all clock in at under 3 minutes. Guided By Voices are forging a record batting average of 24 songs per hour. It becomes a running joke. Requests are almost redundant. "We're playing for two and a half hours, you'll get yours" retorts an increasingly merry Bob, later threatening us with a clipped 90 minutes if he doesn't get Tequila.
Ironically, the band's strength is also it's failing. Pollard has been criticised often as too prolific, and despite the Rolling Stone feting him as a songwriter of the century, he has been accused of releasing too much material without enough quality control. Tonight there are no bad apples and the band are drilled to perfection - but it's difficult to spot the diamonds in amongst the indie-rock nuggets.
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"Game of Pricks" is awesome,with "Back To The Lake" also cutting a space for itself. A choice cut from "The Pipe Dreams of Instant Prince Whippet" prove Pollard is as lyrically sharp as ever but the set ultimately doesn't reach a crescendo or finale of any kind - how could it? It's only the sweat, depleting on-stage ice box and increasingly uninhibited on-stage antics which really give you a sense of time passing.
As Pollard states, Guided By Voices have come all the way from 1981 Ohio to 2003 Nottingham and this very moment. They are a Rock'N'Roll freight train and perhaps it would be foolish to expect anything else.
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