Having only seen ROBYN HITCHCOCK play once, I was really looking forward to this show as it would be my first time seeing him with a band. The only other time I’d previously seen him was at Southpaw several years ago. It was a show in which he mainly played solo, occasionally accompanied by his partner DENI BONET. While that show was fantastic, I have to say that this one may have been even better.
Sitting at a table only a few feet behind the stage, but not too close, we had the perfect vantage point to see and hear the amazingly psychedelic music that was being played. Of course, much has been made over the years about Hitchcock’s vocal resemblance to SYD BARRETT as well as the influence on his music, but underneath the “quirky” tag so often stuck on him because of his lyrical preoccupations with insects and shellfish, his music is deeply psychedelic. It recalls an era in the mid to late ‘60s when bands encapsulated all of their (very trippy) ideas in 3 to 4 minute songs. The British blues revival and the excessive jamming that followed it hadn’t quite taken a hold yet, so these were still essentially pop songs, but with more experimentation (both lyrically and musically). Anyhow, on this tour Hitchcock is accompanied by THE VENUS THREE, essentially a scaled down version of THE MINUS FIVE and also most of the touring version of R.E.M. Although MICHAEL STIPE (with whom Hitchcock did a duet called “Dark Green Energy” back in 1991) and bassist MIKE MILLS weren’t there, Hitchcock was backed by R.E.M. guitarist PETER BUCK as well as touring members SCOTT MCCAUGHEY (also the founder of The Minus Five and previously with YOUNG FRESH FELLOWS) on bass and BILL RIEFLIN on drums.
The 90-minute set nicely balanced Hitchcock’s sizable past and deep back catalog with a few tracks from last year’s Ole!, Tarantula. He reached back to his early ‘80s classic I Often Dream of Trains for the title track and the show’s opener “Uncorrected Personality Traits” (also the title of a Rhino compilation of Hitchcock’s ‘80s non-A&M catalog). He also touched upon the A&M era by playing two songs from 1988’s great Globe of Frogs. He introduced “Chinese Bones” as a song influenced by BRYAN FERRY and also played the semi-hit “Balloon Man” from that record as well. The A&M period was also represented by “Madonna of the Wasps”, the lead single and most well-known track from 1989’s Queen Elvis. 1999’s underrated Jewels for Sophia was also represented by “Sally was a Legend”, though unfortunately we didn’t get “Mexican God” or “Viva Sea-Tac” from that fine album. Finally, Ole!, Tarantula was represented by the title track and the main set closer ”(A Man’s Gotta Know His Limitations) Briggs”, a song that references the 1971 CLINT EASTWOOD film Magnum Force (i.e. the 2nd Dirty Harry film).
For the encore, we got the SOFT BOYS classic “Kingdom of Love” followed by a cover of BOB DYLAN’s “Not Dark Yet”. To me, these two songs back-to-back were the highlights of the evening. I was absolutely mesmerized during both of them. Although the only weak aspect of the show was Peter Buck’s lack of enthusiasm, his playing was fine and his KIMBERLY REW imitation on “Kingdom of Love” was thrilling to hear. Nevertheless, Scott McCaughey’s enthusiasm balanced it out, as he did an awesome leg kick worthy of ROBERT POLLARD during “Kingdom of Love”. The Dylan cover which followed is one of the best I’ve ever heard. It was just that good. Finally the show finished with the lighthearted “Give it to the Soft Boys”, perhaps to balance out the heaviness of “Not Dark Yet” and to end the evening on a less weighty note. Whatever the intention, it worked as thus far aside from THE AVENGERS last month, this was my favorite show of the year.
Playing mostly solo on a keyboard but accompanied by another musician (who mainly played guitar) during part of her set, opener JOHANNA KUNIN played a pleasant but generally unmemorable set of singer-songwriter material not too far off from JONI MITCHELL ’s Blue or perhaps TORI AMOS .
