Warriors In Reverse: Guided By Voices at McCarren Park, Brooklyn, NY 6-18-11. Sometimes while travelling to a concert, or any destination for that matter, I envision myself on a quest. Whether it be a Lord Of The Rings style hack and slash of “I have to get to Mount Doom to catch some band” before darkness envelopes the land, or something akin to The Warriors, in that I have to fight my way through a few boroughs and their resident gangs to get to “home”, it’s always an adventure against time, environment, and adversaries to get to any gig. Guided By Voices in McCarren Park, Brooklyn, was much like The Warriors, only in reverse. I left my safe “home” in New Jersey, and was about to make my way through a borough or two of NYC. The relative haven of Hoboken gave way to the PATH, which left my travelling companion and I (who will be referred to as Ajax henceforth, to keep the movie motif going) in the middle of 14th Street. Union Square, my old nemesis, was our next destination. We made our way through what I can only assume were The Lizzies, as well as dodging street venders and socialites alike. The bowels of Union Square Station had us fending off Subterranean Musicians (they lurk on the lower levels, almost like Morlocks) before hoping the L Train to Brooklyn. As Ajax and I were dumped out into the Brooklyn sunlight, she couldn’t help but say “AAAAAnd this place is so great why?” As if to answer her own question, over the empty streets we came upon McCarren Park and saw many a hipster at play. I almost felt as if we wandered into a zoo, but the animals were looking disdainfully at us, not in an attempt to convince us to free them, but more so to ward us off their consecrated turf. Now, just as an aside, I will not smite the entirety of Brooklyn for its gang infestation (The Hipsters, or as far as the Warriors thing goes, the equivalent of the Gramercy Riffs), because we met some nice guys who needed a bit of help navigating their way through the park to the stage area, and they greeted us with smiles and waves later on during the gig. So there are allies in the good fight in the outer borough. Cutting a path through the hipsters was like a melee fight against zombies. Brightly colored zombies, that smelled just as bad. Finally, we arrived at the park (or enclave. Warriors, see?). Wavves was playing. I know he’s sort of, uh, “hip” to some people. I found his whole “I’m so bored, I’m so high, everything sucks” shtick to be well, utterly boring. Many other bands/people did the lo-fi angsty thing much better than him. If this is what’s filling the void left by Jay Reatard, then I hope dear departed Jay haunts Mr. Wavves by cackling into his ear nightly. Finally, Cyrus, er…Bob Pollard and crew took to the stage. The glorious thing about seeing these 50 somethings ply their trade is the fact that these guys practically sweat joy and enthusiasm. They’re quite happy that you, Ajax, and I were all there to sing along. Even fighting through some technical malfunctions early on in the set (Tobin Sprout’s amp blew its speaker cone) they ripped through a two hour set. The great thing about a GBV show is that you never quite know what songs you are going to hear. They have so many tunes that set lists change from night to night. So one gig is never quite like the next. Even though that leaves shows open to the possibility that one might not get to hear his or hers favorite “hit”, I’d much rather rock and roll be this way. The element of surprise, which is so rare in this day and age of strident set lists, due to stage productions and the speed of the internet in reporting such things. As the sun set over the show, things began to hit into second gear. Speaking of gear… I always had hoped to hear Over The Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox live, and on this very night Bob & crew did not disappoint. It made the near stabwounds and nutkicks I was ready to dole out to the dirty (I mean that literally) hipsters in front of Ajax and I (they liked leaning and knocking into us – even though there was plenty of space, it wasn’t a mosh pit) without even acknowledging our presence, a distant memory (well that and the shove I gave them telling them to “STEP BACK.”). That aside, Guided By Voices continue to reaffirm my faith in the timelessness of great songs, and those that perform them. May the Hallway of Shatterproof Glass Tour continue on and on… Set list highlights for me included: Jane Of The Waking Universe, Dodging Invisible Rays, Unleashed! The Large Hearted Boy, Echos Myron, Motor Away, My Impression Now, Game Of Pricks, Over The Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox, Gleemer, A Good Flying Bird.. So many… There were forty songs in all. Tough to name only a few. So after the meeting of many gangs ended, Ajax and I made our way, without much more incident back to Manhattan for meal fit for a triumphant gang (read: pizza), and then the trains back home. Warriors in Reverse, indeed. -Jay Mazeffect www.gbv.com Photos (click on photo see full size)