"We're All Gonna Die" - My Thoughts on Heedfest 4

It wasn't official before this past weekend, but it is now: Guided By Voices is my favorite band. 

I have arrived at this conclusion after spending roughly 28 hours with 225 of the most devoted GBV/Bob Pollard fans in the world. We had all gathered in Dayton, Ohio - birthplace of aviation and Robert Pollard - for the 4th Annual Heedfest, essentially a fan festival celebrating all things Bob-related. This is what I learned:

1. It is possible to hang out with 225 people you've never met or interacted with before and have one of the best nights of your life. 

I spent Friday night at the Canal St. Tavern in downtown (more like ghost town) Dayton, where a band called Teenage FBI played Bee Thousand in its entirety. For those of you not familiar with Bee Thousand, you might as well stop reading this now. I had been on the fence about my favorite GBV album for quite some time (usually leaning towards Under the Bushes or Isolation Drills), but Bee Thousand is firmly cemented in the #1 position after witnessing Friday night's performance. It was surreal to be in a packed room where everyone knew every lyric to every song (even better than i knew them) and shouted along at the tops of their lungs. To sing "parallel lines on a slow decline" and "no need for fuuurther questioning" and "buzzards and dreadful crows - a necessary evil, i suppose" with hundreds of others while hoisting a beer in the air is to experience pure joy.

Video of Hardcore UFO's/Buzzards And Dreadful Crows

2. The only things you need to have a good time are 1. a remote location, 2. good music and 3. kindred spirits (oh, and a ton of alcohol doesn't hurt)

Following the show on Friday night, we all gathered at the Polish Club on the outskirts of the city, arriving in two coach buses after being picked up from our hotels. The Polish Club is the Field of Dreams of such a gathering - a tiny stage and picnic area covered by an old tin roof and nothing else around within earshot. The speakers were blasting A Salty Salute as we all emptied off the buses, and most faces were wearing grins as we surveyed the perfection of the scene. After a brief period of acclimation, some of us got back on the very same buses for a guided tour of Dayton, stopping by some of the pivotal locations that played a role in the development of GBV - now-closed bars they used to play at and the band shell where the I Am a Scientist video was partially filmed (where we all geeked-out and did our best attempts at Bob's rock kicks), among other locations. While some of it was kind of depressing (as most Midwestern cities are these days), it added a sense of history to the lore of the band. 

After shuttling back to the Polish Club (after a brief altercation with one of Dayton's Finest), we were greeted to two sets of GBV covers from the Heedonists and The Textbook Committee. I won't go into details, but there was more shouting, drinking, pointing, hopping, laughing, and arm-around-the-shouldering. In an attempt to capture some of the magic, I took little snippets of video with my camera and edited them together. I am not sure if people who weren't there will hate this or like it, but here it is:

Quadroheedia - Pretty Not Bad

3. Chanting "We're All Gonna Die" is a surprisingly liberating and appropriate thing to do, especially when everyone is in the best mood possible. 

Robert Pollard had just finished playing his new album, Moses On A Snail, on Friday night, and someone started chanting "we're all gonna die....we're all gonna die...". And when someone starts chanting something at a GBV event, everyone naturally joins in. At first I thought it was a rather morbid thing to do, but after a few seconds I realized how profound it was - to come to terms with your own mortality on a night where you experienced such camaraderie, knowing that there were like-minded people walking this earth who dug the same crazy stuff you did, and for a brief moment you had all found each other and were in each others' presence. At that moment none of us really cared about anything else except being inside that moment. It was damned powerful. And we all laughed about it and shouted louder and toasted, because I believe that we all felt the same thing.

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So yeah, I guess this is what I'm trying to say: music has the potential to be more than just something you like - it can bring people together and trigger instant bonds and friendships. So listen to more of it. But only the good stuff.


- Vbtk