Guided by Voices mix melody and mayhem
Guided By Voices
With the Oranges Band
At: the Paradise, Wednesday
Guided by Voices ringleader Robert Pollard proved once again to be a human jukebox, fed by beers rather than quarters, during his band's recklessly untidy sold-out show at the Paradise, programmed to play all the would-be hits, epic misses, and more.
With a career-spanning set list that gave equal weight to side-project obscurities, early basement-pop essays, and selections from GBV's new "Earthquake Glue" album, Pollard and Co. spit out roughly 40 songs in 2 1/2 hours -- in other words, a mere fraction of its mammoth catalog. (In addition to GBV's "official" record label output, Pollard's compulsive urge to churn out tunes has, so far, accounted for nearly 30 releases on his own Fading Captain Series label).
Except for the notable absence of bassist Tim Tobias, who is reportedly out of the band after a sudden parting of the ways with Pollard (he's since been replaced by newcomer Chris Slusarenko), this was a typical GBV outing. A beehive of buzzing electric guitars from Doug Gillard and Nate Farley, plenty of powerhouse drumming from Kevin March (late of Boston band the Dambuilders), a besotted Pollard holding court at the center of the sloppy storm, and songs that somehow managed to hold stubbornly together even when their authors didn't.
At times, Pollard's bid for alcohol-fueled transcendence looked suspiciously like self-immolation, but it was nearly impossible to mar gems like the still-revelatory "Game of Pricks" or the euphoric "Glad Girls."
For better or worse, GBV is used to wiping out on a slippery, beer-soaked floor during the middle of a guitar solo, and the occasional tangle of amplifier cords or Farley's repeated battles with balance did little to break the band's stride. The Ohio quintet's lathery mix of melody and mayhem -- not to mention some allegedly unruly behavior involving transgressive cigarettes that found their way, lit, to the stage in violation of Boston's smoking ban -- began with the metallic art-pop of "Mascara Snakes" (a song from Pollard's recent collaboration with the group Phantom Tollbooth). From there, it only got louder and harder, with Gillard's and Farley's guitars sounding like twin Hemi engines that drove supercharged rockers such as "Cut-Out Witch" and "Everywhere With Helicopter."
Meanwhile, animated by Pollard's Anglophilic preoccupations, his faux-British phrasing, and his penchant for twirling his microphone cord like a lasso a la Roger Daltrey, new songs such as "My Kind of Soldier," "Useless Inventions," and "The Best of Jill Hives" sparkled with Who-like splendor.
"We're not as good as the Who, but we're better than Iron Butterfly," quipped Pollard, before he engaged in another series of onstage kung fu kicks and leaps that made him seem like a cherubic Marvel Comics superhero. Maybe for those 150 minutes, he was.
Openers the Oranges Band, a five-piece from Baltimore, set a perfect tone with a 45-minute set of power-pop full of fizzy hooks and exuberant bluster.
