Guided By Voices, October 4 at the Wiltern

I didn't go. I had a ticket, I was excited to go, I had it on my calendar... and I missed it. I had the wrong date on my calendar and I didn't check the ticket when I got it. The funny thing is (if this is funny at all, which it isn't) is that I had the correct date on my calendar but something happened, I must have read it somewhere, and I thought that the show was on Tuesday, not Monday, and I thought enough of it to change it. I have the correct date right there on my calendar, crossed-out and switched to the next day. I thought that was my night off for the week and maybe if I had gone home I might have checked the ticket and rushed to get to the show but as it was I went out for drinks with friends and that was a good time but it wasn't Guided By Voices. Just about every show I was going to in a very busy fall were bands I'd seen before, most more than once, or bands that I know I'd see again, bands that have been around and will be around, but this GBV show was going to be the special one. I got into them after they broke up in '04 and I never expected for them to get back together so that I could see them. We had planned to go to the Matador At 21 show in Vegas and we didn't get tickets for that and we were bummed but I realized that the main reason I was crushed was because I wouldn't get to see GBV. I was overjoyed when I got a ticket for the full show and that was the one show I wanted to go to most all year (with perhaps the exception of Coachella). And I missed it. Seatgeek even found tickets for $6 to go. I suppose I got over it, but it will linger as my #1 concert regret. And completely my fault.

If I had gone, the set-list was:
"A Salty Salute"
"Shocker in Gloomtown"
"Tractor Rape Chain"
"Pimple Zoo"
"Closer You Are"
"Buzzards and Dreadful Crows"
"Break Even"
"My Valuable Hunting Knife"
"Cut-Out Witch"
"Hot Freaks"
"A Good Flying Bird"
"Lethargy"
"Striped White Jets"
"Matter Eater Lad"
"The Gold Heart Mountaintop Queen Directory"
"Awful Bliss"
"14 Cheerleader Coldfront"
"Quality of Armor"
"Gold Star for Robot Boy"
"Dodging Invisible Rays"
"Gleemer (The Deeds of Fertile Jim)"
"Queen of Cans and Jars"
"Unleashed! The Large Hearted Boy"
"Echos Myron"
"My Impression Now"
"I am a Scientist"
"My Son Cool"
"Game of Pricks"
"Smothered in Hugs"

"Postal Blowfish"
"Don't Stop Now"
"Motor Away"

"Johnny Appleseed"
"Weed King"