Patterson Hood is not one to let a little thing like a cut hand get between him and The Rock. And so it was that he came out with Drive-By Truckers on Hopscotch's main City Plaza stage early Friday evening despite 15 stitches in his bandaged left hand, holding just a microphone. But Hood was playing air guitar on the opening "The Fourth Night of My Drinking," and he strapped on his trusty Gibson SG for the second song and soldiered bravely on. As usual, Hood's wild-eyed Southern boy was the perfect contrast to co-leader Mike Cooley's seen-it-all cool on a very fine hour-long serving of hard rock from the dark end of the street.

The Truckers opened up for what was billed as the last-ever show by the classic Guided by Voices lineup, although nobody seemed to believe that ("Ya know there'll be another show," quipped Hood). Superchunk drummer Jon Wurster introduced them, announcing that because it was a festival show, Guided by Voices would do a short set of "only" 71 songs.

Actually, their set clocked in at 29 songs in 75 minutes of ragged glory. Frontman Robert Pollard's voice was shaky at times, but he expertly evoked the majesty of rock as he strutted, preened, drank, channeled his inner Roger Daltrey with expert microphone lasso twirls and howled at the near-full moon. Over the years Pollard's live-show experience has come to even resemble Bob Dylan's: it's best not to sweat the details because HE sure isn't, so don't worry so much about identifying songs and just let the man's moods and whims carry you where they will.

The set did include most of the money shots from the classic breakthrough album Bee Thousand (even though Pollard allowed he thought it was "a piece of shit" when released in 1994), including "I Am a Scientist," "Hot Freaks," and "Gold Heart Mountaintop Directory." Guided by Voices has always sounded like stadium rock from a parallel universe, and this might be as close as they'll get in this dimension.

"Come out, come out to play, it's over," Pollard sang during the encore. But Guided by Voices has said goodbye before.

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