The history of rock music is eponymous with the consumption of epic quantities of booze. Most famous rock bands in history have also consisted of famous drinkers. I am not old enough to have personally been able to see some of the legendary rock and roll alcoholic preform personally. I am sure Keith Moon and John Bonham were true epic drinkers not to be quarrelled with- they are both dead now.
Keith Richards has lived his life notoriously wasted, but has released nothing but shit for a very long time.
Sure, Motley Crue claims to have mainlined Jack Daniels, but they sucked. I am going to postulate the Guided By Voices are the drunkest bastards to play true ass kicking rock music. They are rock stars.
While it might be true that GBV have never been huge, it is a testiment to their music that after 20 years they can still sell out clubs on weekdays in small towns. Although they fall into the catagory of "indie" there music supercedes genre. It falls into the greater catagory of "rock." They are fabled to have written somewhere between 1200 and 1500 songs. I personally have about 800 of them in mp3 format, so I don't doubt it. However, the fact that most of their recordings are true examples of low-fi art, where this band really shines is while on stage.
They typically play for about 3 hours. When they go on stage they are visibly intoxicated. It is then all the more impressive that while playing 3 minute songs the band members are able to drink a beer per song, mixing it up with whole bottles of tequila and whiskey. What is even more amazing is that they have been doing it (Robert Pollard at least) for 21 years, and the fact that Robert Pollard is 46 years old.
Toward the end of their show they are clearly wasted in a way that would even make Local H's Scott Lucas's jaw drop. Robert Pollard is filling the time between songs glorifying himself and his band members while making fun of other bands on his label (specifically made fun of at the show I saw last night: Yo La Tengo and Cat Power). Despite the fact that most of the band can barely speak between songs, somehow they channel superior rock genetics and play perfectly.
To punctuate this, here are two examples. New years eve two years ago GBV opened for The Strokes.
Numerous reviews of the show indicated that Robert Pollard gave The Strokes a lesson in being rock stars. This of course means that he got them so wasted they could barely play, then went on stage with them and showed them how it was done.
More down to home, after their show last night I saw their bass player in the Steak and Shake buying food for the band at 3am… it is clear that they did not stop drinking when they got off stage.
Guided By Voices is playing their final tour as a band. I am sure Robert Pollard will be touring as a solo artist, and that there will be a GBV reunion in two years, but the moral is that theoretically this is their last tour. They are playing Chicago new years eve, their last show ever. You would have to be insane to not try and go.