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Robyn Hitchcock Deni Bonet
Concert appearance: Sat., 8 Apr. 1995
TT the Bear's
Cambridge, Massachusetts US
Set 2
(late)
Set list:
Queen of Eyes (acoustic)
Shuffling Over the Flagstones
Queen Elvis
Each of Her Silver Wands
Egyptian Cream w/Deni
De Chirico Stree w/Deni
Sinister But She Was Happy w/Deni
Devil's Coachman
My Wife and My Dead Wife
Filthy Bird
I Something You
Yip Song
I Am Not Me (electric)
Fifty Two Stations
Driving Aloud (Radio Storm) w/Deni
Never Stop Bleeding w/Deni
Beautiful Queen w/Deni
Listening to the Higsons
Heliotrope (acoustic again)
Phew! Can a man have this much fun in such a short space of time?
Seeing Robyn 4 times within a little more than 24 hours is definitely
one way to find out. And I must say that it was one of THE most enjoyable,
exciting times I've ever had (which doesn't say good things about the rest
of my life).
In a nutshell, Friday night was bone-meltingly good, Newbury was great, and
the 'special' Saturday show was even better than Friday. By the late show
Saturday he was pretty tired but still managed to pull out even more stuff
we hadn't heard. Highlights:
- He did "Bleeding"! I've never heard this on a boot, let along seen it.
- Unlike other artists who I've seen multiple times in a row, every show
was SIGNIFICANTLY different. I think the acoustic stuff was almost entirely
different at each show.
- The new stuff is universally great (De Chirco St., Beautiful Queen,
I Am Not Me, Wide Open Star, Happy Bird Filthy Bird, Statue with a Walkman,
Many Wands [I think this is called Heliotrope], Sinister But Happy,
and one or two others.)
- Deni Bonet and Jill Sobule were perfect compliments to Robyn. Deni sang
many sarcastic tunes and Jill opened with "Don't Fuck with Me". Jill has
a new album coming out tomorrow, but Deni's band is only a few months old
and hopefully will record their stuff. Ken loved "Bigger" and I dug "Alone".
- Meeting a bunch of great Feg's (Ken, Doug, John, Eugene, Karen, and a couple
of others.) In fact I recognized a couple of them from shows around the area.
- Ken, Doug and I had great fun doing the audience participation thing with
Deni and Jill, wisecracking about the tunes, their shoes, their bounciness,
Fabio, etc. We tried it with Robyn put he don't play that game.
- Newbury Comics appearance was fun, he played: Bass, Mr. Rock 'n' Roll, Wide
Open Star, Egyptian Creme, I Something You, Ghost Ship (!).
- There were two electric songs that I felt didn't work: Only The Stones Remain
and Driving Aloud.
- On Friday night, the Cakekitchen opened. They're from New Zealand and are a
bit of an acquired taste, but I thought they were great.
- Also that night, Jill Sobule's mike wasn't working, so when she moved, her
guitar pedal was out of place. She said to me, "You look like you know what
you're doing. When I nod, press that button." So I played her foot pedal
that night. The next night, she saw Ken and I and said, "Oh I'm so glad to
see you guys, I've had a bad day." When her audience sing-a-long song came
up, she asked Ken and I to join them on stage to sing the "Baa Yaa" parts,
which we gleefully did. But then she asked us to sing the chorus to
"All the Young Dudes", which we did even though I really can't sing. It was
a blast.
- After Robyn played a new one, I asked him when it was coming out. He said,
"It'll all come out eventually. You should just get a copy of a tape of the
show, it has more...life to it." I interpret this as a slagging of the
whole recording/producing process. But it was interesting to see him
advocate tape trading like that, even though I know he has no problem with
it.
- Chatting with Deni after the show, she said she and Robyn had just been
working on "Beautiful Queen" in the van-ride up. She'll be joining him in
the studio later this summer! I think her violin really works well with him.
- Robyn's manager was a nice fellow, handing us the unused water left by the
opening bands. He said one of the main reasons for the tour was for Robyn to
work out the new stuff.
- Talking to Robyn the first night, he was yakking about his Rio trip, and
Ken and I didn't really engage him. But Saturday night went something like
this:
Robyn: Did you guys enjoy the show?
Me: No, we went to all of them to tell you how much we don't like you.
The new stuff is universally great.
Robyn: Yeah, thanks. You certainly know the right things to say.
Ken: I wanted to ask you about your art, I saw a picture of death eating
an ice-cream cone called "Death takes a snack break."
Robyn: Which one is that? Oh yeah, the one with the Hooded One. That was
Andy's idea, the Hooded One eating ice-cream.
Me: I imagine there'd be a big interest in prints and such. Is that
something you'd sell through Mrs. Wafflehead?
Robyn: Yeah, right now I'm touring and working on new stuff and there's
all the old stuff out there now, maybe later.
Doug: Do you know about the Internet mailing list?
Robyn (says with resignation): I, I know. If I want to know what I've been
up to, I know where to look.
Me: We know what you do before you even do it.
(Robyn turns to finish talking to another guy, we all start to leave.)
Robyn: Happy internet surfing guys!
Ken got the set lists for Saturday, he should be posting them shortly.
With all the tapes being made, we should be able to compile a hell of a
collection!
Mitch
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