I was not in Chicago on December 31, 2004 for what was once intended to be the final Guided by Voices live show. However, I was in Dallas on October 26, 2024 for what might REALLY be the final show.
That’s not official information. In fact, Robert Pollard didn’t say a thing about it on stage and he was mouthing off all night. He joked with affection about his hometown, offered advice to fledgling Guided by Voices cover bands, and did plenty of well-earned chest-beating (with a smirk) about the greatness of his songs. Pollard’s got the comic timing of a seasoned shit-talker and I laughed more this night than I’ve laughed at some comedy shows.
The word around the jungle gym though is that Pollard, who turns 67 on October 31, will no longer tour. He’s been saying this to people. The 2024 tour, which was mostly a lot of scattered weekends, is the last one and Dallas was the last date. Guided by Voices will continue as a recording act (you won’t be shocked to learn that they have new album finished and set for release in 2025), but their days of hitting the highway are done.
Everyone I spoke to as we milled about before the noise started knew about it and had something to say and none of us were sure of what to think. Pollard’s family was there, I heard. This was a heavy night even if nothing on the surface of it told you that. The show wasn’t even sold out. To the casual observer, this was just a rock band on a Saturday night plugging in, turning up the knobs, and doing their thing.
The venue was Ferris Wheelers, a BBQ restaurant with a modest front, a beat-up sign, and a 1,400-capacity space out back that they use for rock shows. For added character, and an offset to the blandness of its spot in Dallas’s culture-less Design District, they’ve got a genuine ferris wheel straight out of a low-budget traveling carnival only a few yards from the stage. You can’t ride it, but it does provide something interesting to look at when lit up at night.
If you’d asked me on October 25 what I thought about a fucking ferris wheel next to a music stage, I would have been strongly opposed, but I have to admit that the ferris wheel grew on me. It made the venue feel like a secondhand junk shop, which is one of my comfort zones (though one fan I spoke to remarked that it made the place look a spot for a kid’s birthday party and, okay, fair point).
But I guess that I like any stage if Guided by Voices is on it.
I first saw them in 1999 and have crammed in many shows between then and now and they’ve always been powerful and vital and something that I needed.
This weird night was no different. It was uncut fun.
This band enjoy each other. You can see that in every moment. Doug Gillard, Bobby Bare Jr., Mark Shue, Kevin March, and Robert Pollard are like five fingers on a hand and when they make a fist they will punch your lights out. They are hard and heavy with marshmallow and every pop song and every prog-rock excursion lands so hard that you can feel it in your gut and my response is to pump my fist as high as it can go and hope that I don’t hit anyone in the back of the head (a serious concern for a dwarf such as myself).
They kicked off with “Teenage FBI” and I couldn’t help but hear its opening line, “Someone tell me why/ I do the things that I don’t want to do”, as poignant for the night. At this point, Pollard’s feelings about touring must be mixed. He kinda loves it, kinda hates it. He’s happy to see it go, but also knows that he’ll miss it when it’s over. Someone tell him why he does the things that he doesn’t want to do, but is he talking about touring or retiring from it?
From there, the set leaped back-and-forth through the discography. For every vintage crowd-pleaser, there was a recent song from the band’s rapid-fire progression of pop-prog-psych-punk craziness that some fans, myself included, are still getting our heads around.
The band treat every song like it’s vital and Pollard always sings like he knows exactly what his crazy words mean.
Nothing compares to Guided by Voices and Robert Pollard is a singularly weird figure in rock music. Even when he was in fashion in the mid-90s, he was also a little out of fashion. He was of an older generation, a good fifteen years removed from us dorm room indie kids who were a large part of his audience and he loved music that so many of us deemed uncool. I credit him with opening up my mind to prog-rock, which everything in the 90s that I read about rock music told me was worthless.
Robert Pollard was right about Yes and Genesis back then and for me he’s never stopped being right. Even if I don’t always understand his latest album, it will hit me hard sometime down the road. It’s happened so many times before.
Pollard’s world is a place where “cool” doesn’t matter. You can be in your 60s and it’s fine. Pollard helps you make peace with your own uncoolness and hear it sing over many weird and beautiful melodies.
So is Dallas 2024 REALLY the final Guided by Voices show? I have no idea and I get it if Pollard doesn’t know either right now.
If some final shindig blow-out is announced in 2025 in Dayton, Ohio, I won’t be surprised.
However, if that never happens, I can buy that, too. After all, Pollard has already done the big farewell party (see The Electrifying Conclusion DVD). Maybe, at this stage in life, he sees the weird beauty of going out like this, as just a rock band on a Saturday night, plugging in, turning up the knobs, and doing their thing.