When it was announced that Bob Pollard was getting the band back together for Matador Records’ 21st birthday shindig in Las Vegas, I began waiting for the announcement of a Dallas gig. I’d pretty much given up after the Austin date was revealed, with no other Texas dates mentioned. But on Friday, it happened: Guided By Voices, September 29, the Showroom at Palladium. [Redacted curse word] yes.
The band for this tour — since Pollard has been the only constant for its inception — will be what some are calling the “classic” GBV: Tobin Sprout and Charles Mitchell on guitar, Greg Demos on bass, Kevin Fennel on drums. I’ll write more about it as the show nears, but for now, I leave with you with this, from a GBV profile I wrote for the Dallas Observer in 2001.
“Last time I came to your town, we went to a party after the show,” Pollard says, about 10 seconds into the conversation, referring to Guided by Voices’ infamous show at Trees in 1999 and more notorious after-party at a local musician’s house. “Some guy was f—ing laying — and I don’t do cocaine; I mean, every once in a while — and some guy was laying out cocaine with a $100 bill, and it came up missing, and he f—ing accused me of taking it.” He laughs. “Yeah, that was crazy. I ended up giving the guy, like, $40 out of my pocket — and he took it, too. I go, like, ‘Man, nobody took your money, man, but here’s some f—ing money if you’re gonna cry about it.’ And he took it.”
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