Akron Ohio Show-- 27 June

[MagThousand!]

Hi all--

I've been going 'round to the various GbV boards and trolling to see if anyone would be able to hook me up with pictures from the show at Lime Spider last Friday. I know there're a few up on the site, but I was looking for some more.

Either reply here or email me at kbyk@iup.edu

Thanks.
Jeff

[largeheartedboy]

No pics, but here's a review (by a disgruntled wannabe critic):

From Cleveland Free Times, Vol.11, No.10, July 2-8, 2003
GUIDED BY VOICES, ALL GOLDEN
The Lime Spider | Friday, June 27

At one point in their nearly 20-year career, Guided by Voices gave credibility to the phrase "daddy know best." As a group of middle-aged men living out their pubescent fantasies of being the next Who, the band outshone fresh-faced indie boys and their Kinks reissues collections with their 60's freakbeat-influenced rock. However, their unabashed drunken display at this show was more like watching a bad train wreck.

When Guided by Voices' brilliant Alien Lanes came out in 1994, singer Bob Pollard was still teaching the 4th grade and bringing home the bacon to his middle class Midwestern family of four. Now, as the band anticipates the August release of Earthquake Glue, which has already received a few dismal reviews, Pollard is busy making out with girls half his age and beating up audience members - or, so he did at the band's first Akron appearance.

As Pollard slurred in self-aggrandizement "we don't need to play fucking arenas when we've got an audience like this," over 300 roars rumbled out of the extra-large, 25-and-over beer guts hogging up the itsy bitsy Lime Spider. No, Guided by Voices don't need to play "fucking arenas," but nor could they, even if they wanted.

Though Guided by Voices were holding it together musically, the sheer length of their set and the club's humidity ultimately made the band's gleaming psyche pop a psyche out. It also didn't help that Pollard's man boobs kept wobbling around inside his starred and spangled shirt.

But it didn't stop the old geezer from chain-smoking through songs, or whirling his microphone above his head as he high kicked his way through some of the band's extensive catalog. But after about four of their Syd Barrett and Creation-inspired songs, you really have heard them all. Songs from Bee Thousand to Mag Earwhig! bled together, each one becoming indistinct from the next.

As the band droned into a new song, an older audience member glanced at his friend, who wore an equally bad polo shirt, and said "this is my 12th time seeing Guided by Voices." Given the way the band's deteriorated, that's hardly something to brag about now. It was a depressing sight of delusions of grandeur and the ability to shamelessly enter a rock'n'roll time capsule.

On a lighter note, Kent's All Golden at least delivered a fresher interpretation of fuzzy power pop. With the help of two Harriet the Spy veterans, the best local hardcore act in Kent churned out buttery, cosmic anthems during its opening set.

--Denise Grollmus

[Scott Frost]

her email address is (EDITED)

I already let her know what I think of her writing

[ericseguy]

That essentially captures the atmosphere of every GBV show I've been to, but the reviewer shits on all the stuff that makes them great. So yeah, it's way off base. Also, RE: "man-boobs": What the fuck? This reviewer needs some hate mail, post haste.

[nakedomalley]

i crack up every time i read that review... the part that really gets me is the mag earwhig reference. what show was she at that they were playing mag songs?!?!

someone obviously has no idea what she's talking about.

[gee beer vee]

delete the damn thing. i know fans of bands get wound up after bad reviews, but there's not a grain of objectivity in this thing, it's a spiteful rant.

[starcrash]

Bob must've drunkenly hit on her a few years back after a show in Toledo. She probably still regrets not taking the opportunity to caress those magnificent "man boobs."

[cungar]

"Earthquake Glue, which has already received a few dismal reviews"

Care to post some of these reviews of an album not due for another month and a half? Or are you just taking some journalistic license to lie?

[Patrick]

Much as I disagree with the review - which I think is deliberately offensive - that doesn't mean I condone using offensive slurs on this board. Nor do I think any of you are advancing your cause if you are emailing the writer and using such language.

Of course, I would encourage you to email her -- or any writer -- to express your respectful disagreement with her or his position.

Patrick

[Gerard]

The name-calling thing is lame.

Harrassing or threatening e-mail to a writer is also kind of pathetic. She's got the guts (though not beer guts, presumably) to put her name on something and stand by it -- slightly tougher than posting to the Matador Bulletin Board. If you want to take issue with something she said, please, do so in a civil manner. Otherwise, please do it somewhere else.

If you happen to think the review in question was nasty, ill-informed, intentionally provocative ("drawing cheap heat", I believe they call it in the wrestling business), why not take the high road and demonstrate to the journalist & editor that this characterization of GBV & their fans couldn't be further from the truth. I mean, you're better than that, right?

[gee beer vee]

Yeah, she's getting quite the "pop".

I usually laugh when people get wound up coz of bad reviews, but this one was truthfully pathetic and unfair (all gbv feelings sincerely aside). GBV fans are a passionate bunch and i'm not suprised at the slurs. I've chosen to not, but hey.

[gee beer vee]

"Heel" pop i meant of course.

[Ladt]

That's quite funny actually, I mean, if you don't like a band then you should really rip them to pieces, right!

[bitterfruit]

As if there is something wrong with making out with girls who are half of your age.

[Ladt]

If you're 18 there is. Apparently.

[R.Wilder]

I enjoyed this nasty little review. I was at the Grand Rapids show the night before, which was a glorious rock 'n roll worship ceremony, and drunkenly dug the epic set with my own man boobs bobbing wildly. So, if I had been at The Lime Spider I have a hunch I would greatly disagree with her opinion, mainly because every GBV shows I've attended---six so far---have been wonderful experiences. But I love her viscious slant told in expressive detail. Sure beats the generic rock reviews in our local rag. Plus, it's funny!

You guys who are so eager to leap upon her need to chill and take it all in stride. Time for cold brews and a GBV listening session.

R.Wilder

[robotgirl]

From what I have learned, this reviewer was actually the acting DJ on the patio of the club that night, hired by the club ! She writes for Akron papers, etc... as well. She became disgruntled after the band asked the owner nicely, who asked her nicely in turn, to turn down the volume a bit, so Bob wouldnt roach his voice shouting to friends before the show began.
She later had a meltdown and spazzed out at the end of the night, smashing the club's dj equipment. The "girls" comment came from her actually watching Bob in a post-show, not-on- stage moment with his steady --- then she made some snide comment to them both. All of this was unprovoked.
Oh, another fact -- she is the girlfriend of one of the Black Keys --not significant but for maybe she feels competitive or something.
This is all true stuff, kids.
There were letters sent in to the Free Times -- cool-headed and constructive ones, by the way, and they printed NONE of them. They are quashing *any* negative response to a review they themselves printed, full of cheap shots and reviews of audience member's clothing, and nothing about the music.

Strange.

[captain]

why the hell isn't this bullshit being deleted? I don't quite get it..someone's non-offensive opinion about Earthquake Glue was locked, and this inflammatory and blatantly non-factually based review is kept on and lauded for the journalists' bravery? I don't know about this...

don't get me wrong, I'm not for emailing the writer and bashing her non-constructively or anything like that, but it just seems to me that if someone saying "I don't like EG b/c blah blah blah" is a locked thread, so should this.

just my thoughts.

[gee beer vee]

exactly. her opinion is far less informed too. (not that either opinion is, um, right. right?).