Customer Reviews

Live at the Horseshoe Tavern

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This little album is great fun. It's from a concert in Vancouver in 2004. Tobin Sprout pretty much plays all his best songs. Older ones like "Gleemer" and "Little Whirl" sound great live. The sound balance is great, and the recording is very clean for a live setting.

The bonus tracks at the end are pretty impressive. If it's any indication of where Sprout is going, it definitely seems even more introspective.

Overall, a good album if you're a Tobin Sprout fan, and probably the closest you can get to a compilation CD of his best stuff.

I'm of the belief that the moment Tobin Sprout was dumped from GBV, the band lost the melodic guitar lines and backing vocals that made them so great in the first place. Pollard always needed Sprout to lay the instrumental foundation for their best songs ("Hot Freaks", "Dayton, Oh 19 Something and 5", etc.) Here Sprout's versatility as a songwriter comes into sharp focus. There is a nice balance of GBV and post-GBV material. "Awful Bliss" and "Esther's Day" have never sounded better than right here. If you like this album check out Carnival Boy and Moonflower Plastic.

I agree with the assessment of the other two reviewers on Tobin Sprout - Live At the Horseshoe Tavern. This is a stellar blend of Sprout's music from Guided By Voices tracks, a healthy dose of the solo recordings Moonflower Plastic, Carnival Boy, the new one at the time: Lost Planets and Phantom Voices, plus more obscure Airport 5 - Eyesinweasel stuff. The disc was made in 2004 in Toronto at the iconic music club, the Horseshoe Tavern. And oh what I wouldn't give to have been in the audience that night. The band was hot! Sprout is backed most capably by the Vermillion brothers, Gary and Steve, along with Mason Diderrich and Mason Brown. This baby rocks the house. And the way the set was recorded you actually feel like you're in the crowd, right by the stage. This is one of my most favourite live albums because it combines great songs with such incredible energy and fun. It just doesn't matter that it gets a bit sloppy and ragged around the edges at times. The perfection and art of it all, is in the occasional imperfections. Tobin Sprout has a truly rare gift as a songwriter. His melodies are so gauzy, pretty and unique. Get this one now and while you're at it buy the wonderful 2010 release "The Bluebirds of Happiness Tried to Land on My Shoulder" from Sprout's website!!!