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Robyn Hitchcock Tim Keegan
Concert appearance: Wed., 4 June 1997
Great American Music Hall
San Francisco, California US
Set list:
Gene Hackman
Lysander
The Wind Cries Mary (Jimi Hendrix)
Clean Steve
Madonna of the Wasps
Jewels for Sophia
Put it on Your Fruit Mic
Dark Princess
Glass Hotel
Beautiful Girl
She Doesn't Exist
Raymond Chandler Evening
Arnold Layne (Syd Barrett)
Are You Experienced? (Jimi Hendrix)
The Speed of Things
Queen of Eyes
Acid Bird
Beautiful Queen
Kingdom of Love
Tim had a banana maraca and a special microphone at banana maraca level.
Robyn, after telling Tim to put the banana maraca on his "fruit mic",
improvised this quick little tune. Don't look for it on his next album.
** Rambling middle part included a reference to Fort Lauderdale. There ya'
go, Terry!
NOTES: nice meeting of fegfolks before the show at Tommy's Joynt up the
street (a place with a great selection of beers and tables that are *almost*
big enough for large feg gatherings)...Cones were purchased. Look for 'em
soon in the virtual cone museum...Scheduled opening act Kim Fox (K.FOX--Hey,
that's my station!) had her name unceremoniously removed from the Marquee
sometime between 6:00 and 7:00 and was never heard from again...Tim's
opening set was very enjoyable, though I hear from an unnamed source that
musicians Winkworth and Gloster relentlessly picked apart his performance.
Tough crowd at that table!...A song request from Sydney (the listmember, not
the city) sparked one of the funnier comments of the evening from Robyn.
I'll let her tell the story...Barry Bonds went 1 for 4 in his return to the
Giants lineup. --russ reynolds A quick first reaction report on the SF show. I'm sure others will do a
better and more complete job -- I don't even have the set list.
1- Public thanks to Mark for driving the bus, and for introducing me to
San Francisco's exotic gourmet ethnic cuisine.
2- Many thanks to all the Fegs who showed up. I can't imagine a nicer
group of people. As well as Mark and myself, Tom/Coleen and Russ/Anita
it was great to meet Stephen (Steven?) who had been to both the Mill
Valley and Sacramento shows, Carrie who has promised to rejoin the list
and the effervescent Sydney. It was also great to meet some familiar
faces from the last show; John who traded cones *at least* twice (but it
was worth it - he ended up with the easily the best one I've seen) and
Chad/Lesley for whom 20 tanks are barely sufficient. We also discovered
that the Carrie's friends (I'm *really* sorry - I forgot your names
already) also read the list. Hope you enjoy the Gormengast books!
3- What a great show! Easily one of the best of (my) recent memory. He
was clearly enjoying himself, on fine vocal form and ready to attempt
some guitar work that was
4- The advertised support act didn't show, which just added to the
spontaneity of the evening. Tim "young robyn" Keegan did a fine job of
filling the slot. Robyn introduced him personally and then watched from
the side.
5- By all rights "Ted" the sound guy should be looking for a new job
this morning. The evening was peppered with requests to tweak the sound.
6- Blinking rate was less than usual. (maybe he was feeling more
confident on "home" territory)
7- I could swear he's been reading the list.
- He is clearly *not* fed up with playing!
- Not much between song banter :(
- What banter there was certainly sounded very spontaneous
- He deliberately and clearly sang "Bucky the pig" (Mark and I
looked at each other and nearly fell off our chairs--Afterwards
Russ denied this ever happened. I think he must have been in the
restroom or something...)
7a- A very varied and adventurous set. I'm sure someone will post it.
Nice mix of brand new, recent, covers and oldies. Loved the new songs:
"Gene Hackman", "Jewels for Sophia" and "Dark Princess" (were there
others?). Lots of highlights from the catalog. ("Raymond Chandler
Evening" has changed key, according to Mark. "Must be that low E").
"Arnold Layne" was way cool. "Acid Bird" was a nice surprise but *two*
Hendrix covers? "Wind Cries Mary", OK -- but "Are You Experienced"?!
Hmm.
8- Feg T-shirts? I'm on the digest so I missed Tom's post on the topic.
However those who met pre-show saw my DIY version.
By the magic of digital technology I have changed the "fegMANIA!" logo
(scanned fresh, not the lo-rez web version) into "fegMANIAX" and printed
it onto iron-on transfer paper (my little Cannon color printer does this
automagically, reversing the image etc.) I then applied this to a plain
white T-shirt (the logo is about four inches long, on the front left).
Much to my surprise it works really well.
If anyone else wants to do this I'd be happy to send you the graphic. If
you lack a suitable printer I can even print a transfer for you (as long
as I don't end up in a mass production job!)
The nice thing about this technology is that you can then add your
favorite Robyn quote/lyric on the back of the shirt (mine happens to say
"Please don't call me Reg--it's not my name"). Pictures are equally
easy. Every one can be unique. It doesn't have to be a T-shirt either -
you could apply it to whatever article of clothing you feel deserves the
"treatment".
I suppose I'd better go catch up on some of the work I missed yesterday.
I hope to read some more reports of this (and the other Bay Area shows)
when the digests finally catch up.
Coneless no more
~NRegarding last night's show, I must agree it was the most enjoyable
performance I've seen in quite a while. Robby-baby seemed pretty
energized and happy to be there amongst friends (I really think he's
developed a nice "I remember you from all the other gigs and all I need
to do is look you right in the eye just long enough to make you
uncomfortable" type of thing with his fans, but I digress). Fashion
report: While introducing Tim, he was wearing a really neet-o Crayola
Crayon shirt. For the main set, a kinda limey (no pun intended) shirt w/
black vest. Encore - that brownish thing with salamanders all over it.
At one point I turned to my wife and asked "Do you think I could get my
hair to look like his?" To which she had no hesitation in replying "I
was wondering the same thing!"
The sound wasn't too great, unfortunately. Ted the sound man was smoking
crack or something last night. Not only were Robyn and Tim constantly
asking for monitor tweaks, but during "Beautiful Queen" there was a nasty
feedack problem right around Robyn's midrange.
Now I shall comment:
On 6/5/97 10:36 AM, Nick W muttered:
>
>2- Many thanks to all the Fegs who showed up
Yes Yes! I must say these gatherings bring a huge ray of sunshine into
my otherwise dreary existence. It was a pleasure meeting Steven, Carrie,
and Sydney for the first time. Hopefully we can gather again soon!
>
>
>7- I could swear he's been reading the list.
> - What banter there was certainly sounded very spontaneous
He improvised a Philip Marlowe story during the middle of "Raymond
Chandler Evening" that would have made Chandler himself proud. Marlowe
was driving around drinking Jim Beam with a windup gramaphone strapped to
the roof playing "Caravan" ("They didn't have Walkmans in those days,
kids"). He stops in front of a white adobe house on Mulholland that has
bright lights pouring out of it, but no movement inside. He gets out and
leans against the car - waiting. He's going to have to wait for a long
time - it's his house.
> - He deliberately and clearly sang "Bucky the pig" (Mark and I
> looked at each other and nearly fell off our chairs--Afterwards
> Russ denied this ever happened. I think he must have been in the
> restroom or something...)
We almost came to blows on this one. I was sitting not more than 12 feet
away from The Man Himself and he clearly mouthed "Mucky". You guys in
the back of the room didn't hear it right (re: Ted's crack habit).
>
>7a- ... *two*
>Hendrix covers? "Wind Cries Mary", OK -- but "Are You Experienced"?!
>Hmm.
I would have given up "Mary" for another original, but "Experienced" was
way cool. He pulled off one of those wicked solos that seem to go
nowhere and everywhere at the same time. I had to close my eyes and just
listen for a while.
Same with Arnold Layne. After he finished it he fiddled around with one
of his pedals and realized he had it set wrong. So he did the solo all
over again and ran it right into "Are You Experienced".
that's it from Cupertino folks. Good luck to those of you in the
Northwest.
-tc "don't singe your fingers on those flaming gourds!"
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