Guided By Voices / Broncho at First Ave, Minneapolis (31 Aug 2016)

Broncho

Oklahoma’s Broncho (featuring Ryan Lindsey, Nathan Price, Ben King, Penny Pitchlynn) opened up the show. We’ve been early supporters of the band (writing and covering them in 2013 and 2014), and we did wanted to catch them on their recent June appearance, but had to miss Broncho’s show due to commitment to cover Rodrigo Amarante on that same date.



Currently, Broncho’s been chosen to open up for GBV, and based on their enthusiastic, animated performance, the band seemed excited to play in front of large crowd.



With a generous (nearly) one hour opening set (clocking in at 50 mins), Broncho took the stage with singer/guitarist Ryan Lindsey chanting, “We’re Broncho, we’re Broncho, we’re Broncho.”
As soon as they started playing ‘Fantasy Boys’, taken from their latest Double Vanity album on Dine Alone Records, you can tell that Broncho seemed more focused in their sound. It sounded almost polished, compared to their previous albums and live appearance – which we previously called them as “punk”. Having seen them now, I wouldn’t really call them simply punk… they sound more melodic, with epic shoegazing jams.



Lindsey’s vocals seemed undermixed at this show, we’re not sure if it’s the soundboard’s fault or if this was done deliberately. It was really hard to see what Lindsey is singing, as the music sounded incredibly loud, particularly with the guitar playing from Ben King (not to be confused with Ben E King) and bass sound of Penny Pitchlynn (who is also in Low Litas, and a band we previously saw opened for Broncho in 2014).



Personally speaking, I do like Broncho’s new shift in sound. It shows that the band is evolving and growing… and we’re curious to see what else they have in store for us in the future.



The cult-like followers of Guided By Voices gave a loud thunderous cheer when the Ohio band took the stage at 9:30pm. They had to start so early because they made the request to First Avenue that they were going to play over two hours and fifty minutes! Of course, true fans would automatically joke, “Oh, that’s a short set for GBV.”



With the release of their latest Please Be Honest, the band drew heavy criticisms from their fans. You see, for five years, since the band reunited with the “classic” lineup of Robert Pollard, Tobin Sprout, Mitch Mitchell, Kevin Fennell, and Greg Demos…. but with the new 2016 version of GBV, it is simply just Robert Pollard. In fact, the entire Please Be Honest has Pollard writing and playing all the instruments on all the songs. Many fans seemed confused by this, should this have just been a Robert Pollard solo album?



With the healthy turnout for the Minneapolis show, clearly fans don’t care that Pollard sacked his entire “classic lineup” band, choosing to bring new players (with some pre-classic lineup musicians): drummer Kevin March, guitarist Bobby Bare Jr., guitarist Doug Gillard, and bassist Mark Shue.



The new band is quite diverse, adaptive, and knowledgeable enough to play GBV’s 30+ years of music catalog (including a cover of The Who’s ‘Baba O’Riley’). Plus, on top of that, they had to play randomly different sets every night (as decided by Pollard’s whims).



Looking over the Pollard’s handwritten setlist, which featured over 50 songs, complete with their standard triple encore …. Guided By Voices’ fans truly got their money’s worth.



Guided By Voices Robert Pollard’s latest album Please Be Honest is out now.



Tour dates: