Live From Austin, TX
By retaining their youthful enthusiasm (with copious amounts of alcohol and sheer guitar volume) and slamming through as many tunes as they and their audience could withstand, Guided By Voices were one of indie-rock’s most entertaining live bands. GBV were never about precision, but raw nerve and excitement. *Live from Austin, TX*, a live recording from their taping of the PBS program *Austin City Limits* during their 2004 farewell tour, isn’t the band at its sharpest (that would be difficult to collect in one spot), however, it does faithfully reproduce the live GBV experience, as singer Bob Pollard gets drunker and sloppier as the night wears on. The infectious energy is heard throughout, as Pollard abandons melody for a wild howl at the end of “Sleep Over Jack” only to recover beautifully for the poignant pop of “Girl of Wild Strawberries.” Considering the band’s epic catalog of hundreds of songs, there are bound to be missing faves even with a generous 30 track helping. With “Best of Jill Hives,” “Gold Star for Robot Boy,” “Buzzards and Dreadful Crows” and “I Am A Scientist” accounted for, well…that’s a pretty good start.
New West's extensive Live From Austin, TX series offers a three-year-old Guided By Voices concert that attempts to finally translate the group's on-stage power into a seminal disc.
The 2004 retirement of the Guided By Voices moniker did nothing to stem Robert Pollard's steady stream of recorded output, but it did signal the end of his days of regular touring. Live From Austin, TX documents one of Pollard's final shows with the umpteenth version of GBV, which sadly wasn't among the best.…
Given Robert Pollard's skewed but enthusiastic embrace of rock classicism (evidenced by his shared obsession with the Beatles and the Who), it's surprising that Guided by Voices never got around to releasing that staple of rock & roll traditionalists, the double live album (beyond giving their blessings to a couple of authorized semi-bootlegs, Jellyfish Reflector and Crying Your Knife Away).