Concert Review: Guided by Voices gets ready for another epic show at Cleveland’s Grog Shop | Cleveland

July 21, 2024

click to enlarge Guided by Voices in Cleveland - Photo by Eric Heisig

Photo by Eric Heisig

Led by voices in Cleveland

Another year, another great Guided by Voices show.

It’s easy to take the quintet for granted. After all, the Dayton-based band, known for its prolific output and long, beer-soaked concerts, has deep roots in Cleveland, having played there seven times since being reformed by frontman Robert Pollard in 2016.

But the sold-out show on Saturday night at the Grog Shop showed why this would be a big mistake.

The Dayton-based indie rock band, which last performed here in 2022 in front of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in a show that lasted nearly three hours and featured over 50 songs, offered more this time. This show only lasted two hours and 10 minutes and the song count was somewhere in the 40s. Perhaps Pollard, 66, is feeling the effects of aging, or perhaps the band just decided to do things a little differently this time.

Whatever the reason, the result was a more focused, yet still expansive concert, with a mix of tunes from current albums and those dating back to the early 1990s.

The show was in support of new album Strut of Kings, a somewhat uneven affair that sees the band indulging in progressive rock. Thankfully, Pollard and the crew chose mostly the album’s strongest songs for Saturday’s game, with “Fictional Environment Dream” and “Serene King” standing out. With a catalog of thousands of songs to choose from, it will be interesting to see if any of the album’s tracks make it into future sets, something Pollard himself seemed unsure about.

“When you have 127 albums, you have to cut things out,” he said. He also said that a new album, “Universe Room,” would be released in February.

However, it was clear what would never be cut. Classics like “Game of Pricks,” “Teenage FBI,” “Glad Girls,” “I Am a Scientist,” and many others were dug out for the umpteenth time, but still sounded fresh.

And while Pollard has always been the likable frontman – occasionally kicking the air, brandishing his microphone like The Who’s Roger Daltrey and declaring his love of Miller Lite (“I like beer that basically tastes like water. You have to drink 40 of them to get high”) – much of the credit for that goes to the group of musicians he’s kept together for eight years. It’s simply one of the best lineups in Guided by Voices’ four-decade history.

This includes lead guitarist Doug Gillard, a Cleveland native who uses his guitar to create sounds that cross the lines between noise, strumming and riffing. His work, particularly on his own song “I Am a Tree,” has taken an already strong lineup to new heights.

After playing for almost two hours, the band took a short break and played an encore of mostly classic songs, including “Jane of the Waking Universe” and “Your Name Is Wild.” They stayed in top form until the end, capping off another epic performance.

Opening act The Sueves warmed up the crowd with a 35-minute set of their tight brand of garage punk. The Chicago-based trio, led by guitarist/vocalist/Cleveland native Joe Schorgl, showed off their range of influences and a bit of confidence as they hacked away at their instruments. They even managed to turn singer/songwriter Roger Miller’s “Reincarnation” into something entirely their own.

Eric Heisig is a freelance writer in Cleveland. He can be reached at (email protected).

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