Monday, October 20, 2008
The Spin The Spin: Boston Spaceships at Mercy Lounge
Posted by The Spin on Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 11:30 AM
Photo by Steve Cross.
For more photos, check out the slideshow at nashvillescene.com.
Realizing that there was no possible way for any of us to get the complete Bob Pollard experience sober, we decided to cab it over to the Mercy Lounge for Saturday night's Boston Spaceships show. Unfortunately, our decision to drink responsibly resulted in our missing Detroit's High Strung, who apparently went on at 9 p.m. sharp. An opening band going on that early on a two band bill? WTF? With only about 150 people in attendance, the turnout was truly shameful, especially considering how many people came in from out of town.
Sure, there have been an inordinate amount of good indie nationals coming through town lately, but Pollard, regardless of his hall of fame status, seemed to only draw out the 35-and-up crowd: a sausage fest of comic book T-shirt wearing, record collector alcoholics who undoubtedly see themselves in their paladin—a man who quit his job as a 4th grade teacher to pursue his dreams of being a rock star, at the age of 37. These are obviously the people who have the patience to celebrate the man's entire catalogue, and, this being the last show of the tour, it went long, with the setlist mainly focusing on material from the former Guided By Voices front man's recent solo albums, cuts from the new album Brown Submarine, and even songs of a forthcoming Boston Spaceships album.
For those who don't know, a Bob Pollard show usually consists of his engaging the audience with high kicks, quasi-Daltrey mic swings, copious amounts of alcohol consumption, non-sequitur stage banter and about 40 awesome songs. This show would be no exception, with the man and his new band—featuring Tommy Keene, former GBV bassist Chris Slusarenko, Decemberists' drummer John Moen, and some other guy—all on top of their game. Onstage there was a tailgate cooler of Miller Lite —a popular beverage for the audience as well, as it is endorsed, literally, by Pollard —and a handle of Cuervo. Uncle Bob drank, had audience members throw cigarettes at him, ranted and crooned, getting more and more animated as the show progressed.
This all went on for two-and-a-half hours, and in that time we collectively ran up a triple-digit bar tab. The encore drove the crowd into a frenzy with a true-to-form cover of Cheap Trick's "Hello There" and a breakneck rendition of the GBV classic, "Game of Pricks." As the band left the stage, we in the audience decided that that was just too much of tease and chanted vigorously until our hero returned, band in tow, to run through a GBV set that included the drunk driver's anthem "A Salty Salute," a version of "Cut-out Witch" that brought about a middle-aged mosh pit, during which we got elbowed in our face. Which just made the experience that much more memorable—there is nothing quite like the thrill of singing along to "Tractor Rape Chain" with blood all over your face. After the show ended we had a little encore of our own as we proceeded to the bathroom to take turns puking. Long live rock.
Comments (16)
Showing 1-16 of 16
:::Slow clap:::
It was all that and more. The more part I can't remember though, due to severe drunkenness.
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Tractor Rape CHAIN. Just sayin...
I too was surprised that The High Strung went on on time. I thought there was a local ordinance that no show can start until at least half an hour after the advertised time.
Also, kudos to Bruton for moving the tables into the backroom. That move was long overdue.
Jeebus Tobin... he has always played GBV songs on his solo tours. Common sense would tell you he would. WTF does it take you get you to venture out of the house? I could understand not going to this show if you didn't know about it (I think the name recognition thing probably kept the crowd smaller). But if you are a GBV fan and you knew he was coming, why wouldn't you be there?
Well shit, I guess we should've played with that Jeff band to get the kids out. Hell I would've given 'em a beer or two.
That bass playing dude is Jason Narducy, who also plays with Bob Mould's band. He's a hell of a bass player and singer.
The show was completely bad ass, even if you were unfamiliar with a lot of the new stuff.
been driving to Southgate House in Newport, KY to see Uncle Bob ever since GBV broke up. Always totally together and uber-rockin', Bob's solo shows have even been more consistently great than GBV's were the last few years. It was great to be able to swerve home to my own abode afterwards and not be 5 hours away but the dismal turnout probably assures we've seen our last Bob show for a while. It'll be back to Southgate House (which is ALWAYS sold out for Bob Pollard shows with lots of 'kids' in attendance) in the future I bet. If you ever loved this man's music and you didn't go to the show, consider yourself part of the problem when it comes to Nashville shows.
It probably helps that Newport is only an hour from Dayton, so the Pollard Posse can easily make the trip.
I'd agree with Doyle though, Saturday night was a whole lot tighter than any of the shows I saw from the last GBV lineup. I think a lot of the credit goes to John Moen... he's easily the best drummer Bob has ever had.
Here here. The turnout was extremely disappointing, especially for a Saturday night. The show was incredible though. Like Doyle said, too bad we've probably seen our last Bob show for a while.
Heard there were only about 30 people in Memphis, so at least we showed up Bluff City.
And not that it was a hard task, but Chris Slusarenko kicked Nate Farley's ass on rhythm guitar as well.
Not only is Nate Farley a shitty guitar player, he's an asshole too. I'm from Dayton, and everyone basically shares the same sentiment when it comes to him.
Doyle, it takes you 5 hours to get to the SGH???
That's insane. Are you driving through Lexington or do you just drive 40 miles and hour?
Amen Ryan. By the halfway point of the set, Nate always pretty much gave up playing in favor of swigging Jack Daniels and pumping his fists.
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