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Robyn Hitchcock
Concert appearance: Mon., 6 Sep. 1999
Bumbershoot
Seattle, Washington US
Set list:
Arms of Love
The Cheese Alarm
Lysander
The Wind Cries Mary (Jimi Hendrix)
Glass Hotel
My Wife and My Dead Wife
Viva! Sea-Tac
No, I Don't Remember Guildford
Beautiful Girl
I Something You
I Feel Beautiful
Sally Was a Legend
Gene Hackman
The Ghost in You (Psychedelic Furs)
The Speed of Things
New Age (Velvet Underground)
notes:
--i *finally* met the heroic laurence and sally! sadly, they refused to
allow themselves to be photo graphed. smart move, in retrospect. keeps
their legendary status intact, somehow.
--opener cat power stank. ironically, the coolest part was the
responsibility of our very own capuch'n (who, being a known feg, was
genetically predetermined to despise her set --i passed by cynthia in the
lobby during the set, and we merrily waved to each other, so glad were we to
be out of earshot, for example-- while all others in the (packed) house
issued a standing "O"). after "rushing" through her prepared setlist, she
still had a few minutes to kill, so took requests. jeme sneered "Freebird!"
and, damned if she didn't play the first bit of it! not too shabby,
neither. (fegs thinking somewhat alike dept.: before jeme hollered out for
Freebird, i was trying to think of which stones song to request. i had just
settled on Gimme Shelter when jeme beat me to the punch.)
--our excitement reached a fever pitch as we entered the seating bowl and
noticed a piano sitting onstage, spritely. cynthia tried to calm us down,
stoically informing us that cat power uses a piano in her "act". (that's
actually a pretty good word for it!) but we would have none of it,
performing all manner of silly handshakes, and predicting which songs would
be performed on piano, and at which point in his set, and so on and so
forth. THEN, after cat power finally left --and good fucking riddance--
some goons came up and wheeled the piano offstage!! we tried to convince
them that robyn needed to use it as well, and could they at least *ask* him
before removing it? but, goons being goons, our cries fell on deaf ears,
and the piano was soon history.
--far the best version of Guildford i've heard. i don't exaggerate when i
say it brought tears to my eyes.
--believe it or not, i was listening to LOADED (my favorite velvets record)
a few months ago, and thinking that i'd love to hear robyn cover New Age.
really! funnily enough, there *is* a record for it in "the askin' tree",
but no recordings *or* gigs listed for it. how did it get in there in the
first place?
--something of a sombre set, all things considered. even the usually
raucous Viva Sea-Tac and Beautiful Girl were relatively downtempo. not much
in the line of stories, either. odd, though: he seemed in a smashingly good
mood.
--his voice was in fine, if not spectacular, form today.
--some dipshit (who'd weaseled into a front-row seat after a cat power fan
had vacated it) requested "Element Of Light". i felt like throttling him.
--you probably couldn't call it a top-tier robyn hitchcock show, principally
because it clocked in at only 66 minutes (though he'd been scheduled for
75), because of the parsimonious banter, and because he didn't haul out the
electric. however, the towering Guildford, the stunning New Age, and the
exceptional Arms Of Love and Speed Of Things mark it as quite a memorable
one. indeed, as a keeper. Etews
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