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Robyn Hitchcock w/ Gillian Welch & David Rawlings
Concert appearance: Sun., 20 Mar. 2005
Belcourt Theatre
Nashville, Tennessee US
Set list:
Brenda's Iron Sledge Dave & Gil vocals bluegrass vers
Miss Ohio (Dave Rawlings/Gillian Welch)
Television
If You Know Time
Everybody Needs Love
English Girl
Demons & Fiends
Creeped Out
Sometimes a Blonde
We're Gonna Live in the Trees
Tryin' To Get To Heaven Before They Close the Door (Bob Dylan)
Full Moon in My Soul
Flanagan's Song
Bang a Gong (Get It On) (T. Rex)
I Just Want To Make Love To You (Willie Dixon) >
Tombstone Blues (Bob Dylan) >
Tears of Rage (Bob Dylan/Richard Manuel)
Luminous Rose Dave & Gil vocals
Elvis Presley Blues (Gillian Welch & David Rawlings)
Dear Prudence (The Beatles)
Encore: Flesh #1 (Beatle Dennis)
Encore: More Than This (Roxy Music) >
Encore: Waiting For My Man (Lou Reed)
Encore: Lo and Behold (Bob Dylan) >
Encore: Life During Wartime (Talking Heads)
no opening act
"Brenda's Iron Sledge" - GilNDave come out alone, acoustic guitars,
and perform the song themselves. Robyn does not emerge until just
before the final verse, then sings lead the rest of the way through.
Did someone slip GilNDave a copy of GLASS FLESH or what? Kevin Z.
Slick, take a bow.
"Miss Ohio" - Robyn takes up an acoustic guitar, Jim Boquist of Son
Volt fame joins on electric bass, and to reverse the roles of the
opening number, Robyn sings lead all the way through on a GilNDave
song.
Then it's all of SPOOKED in order, sans "Welcome To Earth," with the
above people playing all the parts you know from the record, mostly
Gil on drums, though Jim played barely audible brushes on one song.
Robyn finished his introduction/explanation of the SPOOKED section
with "Just pretend that we're David Gilmour," which cracked me up.
The perfect pun for the evening!
"Television"
"If You Know Time"
"Everybody Needs Love"
"English Girl"
"Demons & Fiends"
"Creeped Out"
"Sometimes a Blonde"
"We're Gonna Live in the Trees" (yes, with Dave on drills + electric
guitar)
"Tryin' To Get To Heaven Before They Close the Door" (Dylan)
"Full Moon in My Soul"
(Robyn explains they're not playing "Welcome To Earth" because "humor
has no place in live music")
"Flanagan's Song"
Then a selection of songs that Robyn says that they played for each
other during the recording of SPOOKED. Many were medley-fied and are
indicated as such:
"Bang a Gong (Get It On)" (Bolan) / "I Just Want To Make Love To You"
(Dixon) / "Tombstone Blues" (Dylan)
"Tears of Rage" (Dylan/Manuel)
"Luminous Rose" - lead vocal by Dave, backing by Gil, Robyn on
acoustic only
"Elvis Presley Blues" (Welch/Rawlings) - lead vocal by Robyn
"Dear Prudence" (Lennon/McCartney)
Encore:
"Flesh #1 (Beatle Dennis)" / "More Than This" (Ferry) - going back
into "Flesh #1" by the end
"Waiting For My Man" (Reed)
"Lo and Behold!" (Dylan) / "Life During Wartime" (Talking Heads) -
going back into "Lo and Behold!" to finish up, very approximate lyrics
for the "Life During Wartime" segment
Total time: a shade over two hours
Sartorial report: blue jeans + light green shirt with spring/pastel
floral design at bottom of shirt.
Blinking: heavy
Mood: still fit, still happier than I've ever seen him, least banter
I've heard at a Robyn show but it was an unusual one, so it's not
surprising that he'd
Annoyance: guy with booming voice who tried to engage Robyn in banter
after almost every song in the regular set, and whose yelling
continued into the beginning of several songs. Someone from the
Belcourt (the venue) finally spoke to him during the last song of the
regular set, and he either quieted down or couldn't be heard over the
somewhat noisier encores, and that was good. But he should have been
thrown out about 80 minutes earlier.
In a nutshell: My first comment after it was over was "Well, that was
fun [and it was!], but now I'm ready for a Robyn Hitchcock show."
It's not the Robyn show I wanted, and in fact, I would have rather had
any setlist from any other show on this tour. "Flavour of Night,"
"Somewhere Apart"... sigh. I had to look at it this way: Robyn's
previous two Nashville shows came at intervals of five (1992 to 1997)
and seven (1997 to 2004) years, and if it weren't for SPOOKED being
recorded here, I likely wouldn't have gotten another Robyn show until
2013. And this beats that.
Random observations:
* Jim Boquist *still* looks perpetually cowed, like Jay Farrar is
going to yell at him at any minute but if he can just hide near the
back of the stage and no one sees him, maybe it won't happen, maybe
not this time...
* GilNDave still interest me far more backing other people than they
do when playing the Gillian Welch stuff.
* Kudos to GilNDave for picking "Luminous Rose" and for whatever
consensus brought out "Flesh #1." I do love me some GLOBE OF FROGS.
* It's not that SPOOKED's songs are that poor, it's the combination of
(1) them not being "A" material, (2) that I don't have any desire to
hear all of them together, (3) that after LUXOR about the last thing I
wanted was ten or twelve more mostly-acoustic mostly-mellow songs.
Live, the songs have more energy, as expected, but I still had no
desire to hear all of them. Damn you, Internet, tantalizing me with
those other tour setlists!
* "Flanagan's Song" is by far the best thing on SPOOKED. Too bad it's
saddled with that unmemorable title. I even had to look it up again
when I got home - my setlist just says "the good song that ends
SPOOKED."
* The show was being videoed and recorded, and Robyn said (from the
stage) that the intention was to release the show. So don't bitch at
me about not taping shows, o.k.? All of y'all might get to see and/or
hear this one, provided that Robyn isn't deterred by Sociopathic
Yelling Man's contributions.
* I didn't stick around afterwards.
And that's all I have to say for now.
later,
Miles
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