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Robyn Hitchcock
Concert appearance: Thu., 12 Aug. 1999
Cat's Cradle
Carrboro, North Carolina US
Music Against Brain Degeneration Revue
No set list available.
This is a "Reader's Digest" condensed version of RH's gig near here
last week. In a nutshell: too short. 45 minutes, max. He opened with
"Gene Hackman", which (fortunately) did a lot to get the crowd of early-20's
and teens on his side. He did acoustic versions of "The Cheese Alarm",
"I Am Not Me", "Arms of Love" and "Jewels for Sophia". This was followed
by a solo electric set of "Autumn Is Your Last Chance" (an all-time fave
of the writer) on a guitar that was so heavily flanged and stuttered that
it seemed almost as if he was singing to a prerecorded tape -- I watched
him pick the guitar, but the notes coming out of the amp were not eveb
close to correspinding to his picking. An awesome effect, and highly
disconcerting. He also did "Kingdom of Love" as well, which brought
out quite a bit of applause from the teenagers. The show was ended
with RH and three members of Pavement (Steven Malkmus and two
others) doing a really loud and destructive version of "Listening to the
Higsons"; it was actually very reminiscent of the sloppy version of
"Rock 'N' Roll Toilet", except much much louder.
Again, the only downside: way too short. Flaming Lips suck anyways.
Toss them, give Cornelius an extra 20 minutes and give the rest to
Robyn, I say. Whoops -- one other downside: only two varieties of
T-shirt to choose from: the purple one with the green star, or the one
with the strangely-coloured sleeve ends and collar that is so fancied
by teenage 60s-retro-wannabes.
David Scales
One incorrect factual note in the preceding review:
"The show was ended with RH and three members of Pavement (Steven Malkmus and
twoothers) doing a really loud and destructive version of "Listening to theHigsons";
it was actually very reminiscent of the sloppy version of"Rock 'N' Roll Toilet",
except much much louder.This was actually *Sebadoh* (who also played a set that night)
backing up Robyn.
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