Dream Guided by Voices reunion tour set list

So, we’re five days away from a monumental musical event: the debut of the reunited Guided by Voices. The band’s 1992-96 lineup will kick off a 20-date tour at the Texas Palladium Showroom in Dallas on Wednesday, Sept. 29, hitting Austin the next night before hitting Las Vegas for the Matador at 21 event that led to the reunion.

I’ll catch a couple of shows in October, and am excited to see this lineup. I obviously haven’t seen the band since its 2004 exit, and saw this version only once, at South by Southwest in 1996.

As anticipation builds, I have wondered what the band will play. According to early word, the band will draw exclusively from four albums — Propeller, Bee Thousand, Alien Lanes and Under the Bushes, Under the Stars. That omits Vampire on Titus, which was released between Propeller and Bee Thousand, and several tracks released on singles and elsewhere.

Assuming that they stick to the four albums mentioned, here is a 37-song dream set list. This is in chronological order only, so other than assuming they’ll open with “A Salty Salute” and close with “Don’t Stop Now,” the rest would just be conjecture.

Over the Neptune/Mesh Gear Fox
Weed King
Quality of Armor
Exit Flagger
14 Cheerleader Coldfront
On the Tundra
Hardcore UFOs
Buzzards and Dreadful Crows
Tractor Rape Chain
Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory
Hot Freaks
Echos Myron
Gold Star for Robot Boy
Queen of Cans and Jars
I Am a Scientist
A Salty Salute
Watch Me Jumpstart
They’re Not Witches
Game of Pricks
A Good Flying Bird
Pimple Zoo
Auditorium
Motor Away
My Valuable Hunting Knife
King and Caroline
Striped White Jets
Blimps Go 90
Cut-Out Witch
The Official Ironman Rally Song
No Sky
Your Name is Wild
Acorns & Orioles
Underwater Explosions
Don’t Stop Now
It’s Like Soul Man
Drag Days
Sheet Kickers

The list includes some songs that weren’t among my favorites at the time but which have become treasured — “On the Tundra,” “They’re Not Witches,” “No Sky” and “Drag Days” among them — that I hope hear with this new appreciation in play. The beauty of this is that band leader Robert Pollard has cherry picked the band’s strongest era here. While I’d love to hear a couple of early songs like “Drinker’s Peace” or some rockers from Mag Earwhig!, they really can’t go wrong here.

For a teaser, here’s the band rehearsing “A Salty Salute” in Dayton earlier this month: