GBV roll call, pregame and bizarre set time

fantastic show….went to U street music hall for Grum to finish off a great night…

It was short and it started too early . . .which perhaps made the show more in line with the dense and looslely efficient GBV 'classic' albums than a legendary immersive marathon show.  A cavalcade of hit after hit lighting up the hazy shadows of the debauched recesses of your rock and alcohol soaked mind.  I could review the show by just saying Smothered in Hugs, Watch Me Jumpstart, Motor Away, Game of Pricks, Gold Star for Robot Boy and it would suffice to explain how I felt.  Great fun to see the old guys reunited, with eachother and the songs, working their alchemy.

I guess it was like a happy hour jam.  Loosened up along the way (especially Tobin who gave off a vibe that he got there straight from work), hit a kind of inebriated sweet spot (I'd point to Smothered in Hugs) and then it was over before you have another, lose your sense of time and the real craziness begins.

I guess I missed the part where Tobin loosened up!..
To me he seemed not to fit in at all and seemed so nervous when he first sang… the band was bob, kevin, greg and mitch.. what Tobin was doing half the time I haven't a clue…

But of course he wrote many well loved GBV songs and it was great that he was a part of the reunion.

After the show Mitch jumped down and hung out…maybe he was trying to get some of that "DC Pussy!" he went on about…

hutch wrote:
what Tobin was doing half the time I haven't a clue…

Was his guitar even on half the time? 

Mobius wrote:
It was short and it started too early

I wound up getting sick about 80 minutes in last night and had to leave.  What time did they finally shut it down?

pascual_i285_perez wrote:

Mobius wrote:
It was short and it started too early

I wound up getting sick about 80 minutes in last night and had to leave.  What time did they finally shut it down?

they  started at 9:16 but there was about 10 minutes of gibberish noise.. they really started about 9:25 or so…

ended somewhere between 11:21 and 11:30..probably closer to 11:21….based on the time of my last pictures..

maybe I shouldn't mention this but the band were smoking like chimneys all night… at one point the second hand smoke was noticeable and i looked around me thinking someone around me was smoking but then realized it was coming from bob and mitch

i am amazed at how bob pollard's voice holds up with all that smoking..he sounded amazing all night…

its too bad they couldn't get jim pollard to come out with them.. he was missed..

hutch wrote:

pascual_i285_perez wrote:

Mobius wrote:
It was short and it started too early

I wound up getting sick about 80 minutes in last night and had to leave.  What time did they finally shut it down?

they  started at 9:16 but there was about 10 minutes of gibberish noise.

Was that intentional or was that a result of "technical issues"?  From upstairs I saw a sound guy messing around with what appeared to be a CD player but couldn't really tell.  I made it until about 10:30 or so and then started crashing pretty hard so I left, sadly. 

I noticed the smoke too pretty early on.  It was really bad upstairs on Mitch's side.

They definitely had technical problems with a Discman-type cd player.  It looked like it would play for a few seconds then fail.  They scrambled to try to fix it for a few minutes, but eventually gave up.

hutch wrote:

had not been to duffys btw.. color me unimpressed.. rude waiter..high prices…surprised..i expected more.. a place that has 6 tvs and not one showing phillies-giants game?

i was at duffy's too, they definitely had the phillies-giants game on the tv closest to the door. my corn beef sandwich took forever, but was really good

it could have been longer, but really the only complaint i buy. so much fun

Any thoughts on Sweet Apple?

godsshoeshine wrote:

hutch wrote:

had not been to duffys btw.. color me unimpressed.. rude waiter..high prices…surprised..i expected more.. a place that has 6 tvs and not one showing phillies-giants game?

i was at duffy's too, they definitely had the phillies-giants game on the tv closest to the door. my corn beef sandwich took forever, but was really good

it could have been longer, but really the only complaint i buy. so much fun

the reason they had it on was that we asked! the game had been going on for a while already! i think it was in the third inning!  i was with two philllies fans…

our 20$ pitcher of yuengling (ripoff price) arrived with three glasses that were hot as they had just come out of dishwasher..ridiculous.

12 bucks for a dozen wings?

very down on this place….doubt i'll be back..

and lets not talk about the waiter who looked like he'd rather be anywhere else..

was that really j mascis with sweet apple?  the foh soundman for gbv was 930's soundman.  which is kind of weird, in that most bigger acts bring their own soundman.  i guess gbv was trying to save money.  plus they had 3 roadies.  mitch mitchell chain smoked literally all night.  when one of his cigs went out, a roadie had a lit one ready to go.  at one point one dropped out of his mouth while he was singing and someone in the crowd picked up and gave it back to him.  930 was packed thurs night.

I kept wanting J to rip a blistering guitar solo the whole time. Sweet Apple were OK.

That was an incredible demonstration of iron-man (or iron-lung) smoking. Can't be good for you…
I didn't realize that was J until midway through the set. I liked them. A couple of songs stuck with me and I downloaded them today. Always a pleasant surprise when when I like the opener enough to listen later. 

thank god the typing course audio wasn't working; at the austin show, it went on for like 15 minutes before gbv took the stage (it didn't help that there was a bunch of technical problems to start the show either). . the talls of lone star helped pass the time.  san francisco was brilliant!  d.c. was good, although mitch's guitar kept going in and out.  at least he got the solos right this time…..plus, the banter during "lethargy" was much more amusing than from the other shows i've seen.

sorry i missed everyone; i was in the back near the soundguy with godsshoeshine…..then we hung out downstairs afterwards.