Are You Listening?

Guided By Voices @ Metro 2/24/96

At the time that I went to see this show, I actually wasn’t a huge Guided By Voices fan.  I suppose I’m still not.  But I’ve always thought they were a very unique type of band.  I liked their songs.  They were fun & very different from anything else I was listening to at the time.  I had gotten into a conversation with a co-worker of mine and we got on the subject of music and somehow on to GBV.  It turned out that he was a pretty big fan and ended up convincing me to go see them at the Metro.  I was down.  I hadn’t been to a show yet since we had begun the new year, so I thought ‘why not?’  As it turned out, this was also Guided By Voices’ first time playing at the Metro.  I can’t remember if there was an opening band.  I’m sure there was, but I have no recollection of who it was.  When we got to the club, we tried to find a good spot on the floor.  It wasn’t that crowded, but we ended up on the side of the stage.  For whatever reason, I decided to walk up the stairs on the side of the stage and proceeded to sit down on the stage while the band was playing.  I think I might have been a little tipsy because I remember tossing bottle caps on to the stage. Surprisingly, nobody removed me.  I couldn’t believe they let me sit there.  It was great.    I don’t think I stayed there for the entire show, but it was certainly cool while it lasted.  I did enjoy this show, but because they already had a fairly extensive catalog of music and I was only familiar with the one album I had, Bee Thousand, I didn’t recognize a lot of the songs.  I’m glad I got the opportunity to see them in such a relaxed atmosphere.