Chimpomatic

Guided By Voices

Live At ULU, London

The band were winding down at the end of their European tour with this final show at ULU - a hint of things to come was made evident by the roadie loading up two crates of chilled beer on the stage. Bob then used that to chase down a bottle of scotch, getting slowly more chatty... GBV might as well be their own support band, clocking in here with a not untypical 2 1/2 hour show. The first hour was relatively slow, but still featured a couple of my personal favourites, such as "Back To The Lake".

"Later on tonight, you'll all be drunk and happy and we'll have played all your favourite shit, but for now you have to listen to our new shit - which should be OK, because it rocks."

The booze kicked in to good effect though, with an encore longer than many bands sets, pumping out all the classics.... A pattern emerges with each new release from GBV as each album contains a couple of 'classic' tracks, which slowly work their way into the highlights - making the last hour non-stop greatness.

"How's My Drinking?" Fully acceptable thank you.