Watch Them Jumpstart: GBV Blister the Ballroom

To my knowledge, the great Guided by Voices documentary has not been filmed. When it comes to the screen - face it, everything gets a documentary in the 21st century - the title “Drunken Masters” would fit perfectly.

The venerable Dayton band descended on Nashville, supposedly closing out a brief jaunt with the group's best lineup. This was the first time I ever caught an act twice on the same tour; with chances of future tours for the 93-96 GBV and better chances of a vastly different Nashville setlist, I could not conceive of missing.

At any Music City show, you must fear Nashville Crowd Syndrome. This constitutes a poor showing for a small national band because people did not score free tickets. It might cause the group to pass Nashville on future tours.

Thankfully that plague did not afflict the Jan. 14 performance of Guided by Voices. GBV failed to sell out, but it was a good showing, light on douchebags and surly hipsters. People packed against the stage for a high-five from frontman Robert Pollard or a good view of his multiple scissor kicks. And he kicked a lot when not twirling the microphone. For a former elementary-school teacher, the man has the rockstar frontman routine down pat.

For me, Guided by Voices began A Man Called Aerodynamics, when I picked up Under the Bushes, Under the Stars, the last record from the classic lineup. That album opener it a blistering rock number with power chords and Pollard’s voice radiated hope and good spirits in a way rock music rarely did in the 1990s.

GBV can condense an anthem into 50 seconds, then pack 15 of them on their best records. Their live sets on the Classic Lineup tour skipped the tape hiss and low production quality for ballsy, anthemic pop-rock that recalls the Kinks and multiple artists on Nuggets.

The band’s kitchen sink ethos with its album held it back at times, but you wouldn’t know it from this tour. They plucked highlights and rare gems from their beloved quartet of albums (Vampire on Titus, Bee Thousand, Alien Lanes and Under the Bushes) and dropped in the My Impression Now from the EP Fast Japanese Spin Cycle. Pollard claimed he considered it an album, just like all their EPs.

Vampire on Titus got a few excellent spotlights, including Expecting Brainchild and Tobin Sprout’s Gleemer (Deeds of Fertile Jim). For a record that sounds as if the four-track was down the hall where from the band played, it contains some great tunes.

Golden Mountaintop Queen Directory was reborn, its magnificent chorus harmonies laid bare in a way Bee Thousand’s production could not. Keeper of Elves went down smoothly, I Am a Scientist dazzled, and who in attendance would forget Buzzards and Dreadful Crows or Smothered in Hugs?

Hot Freaks droned forward with its dark, Satisfaction-style back beat.

Echoes Myron is a GBV essential, a few minutes of rock euphoria that never grows old. Pollard helped by ending it with the declaration, “Free beer forever!” He ad-libbed through A Series of Sneaks, tying Dayton and Nashville together in a second verse I didn’t know existed.

Pollard showed his alcohol earlier than in Columbus, and by the time GBV reached the encore he began to show his wear. I lost track of his Budweisers, and he pointed held out the bottle of Cuervo before swigging. “I’m going to drink from this bottle of Cuervo, and you’re going to let me. You’re helpless,” he mumbled with smile.

He would mumble more and just like in Columbus, snap back to lucidity every time a song began. My friend Kristin remarked that she had not seen an artist perform so well while drunk in a decade or more. Having seen GBV in October, my timeline was a little different. But the band demonstrated a tightness few indie rockers can match.

Near the main set’s end, Pollard exclaimed, “I miss Tobin,” a sentiment fans of this lineup wholeheartedly endorse. Guitarist/vocalist Sprout served as Pollard’s foil, and his departure threw GBV out of equilibrium.

Balance was back on this little reunion. GBV might not tour in this form again, or have ever cracked the record charts. But they can claim one hell of a victory lap.