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Robyn Hitchcock Tim Keegan
Concert appearance: Sun., 25 July 1999
Roseland Theatre
Portland, Oregon US
Music Against Brain Degeneration Revue
Set list:
Gene Hackman
I Something You
De Chirico Street enter Tim
Viva! Sea-Tac
Jewels for Sophia
Beautiful Queen Robyn electric
Freeze exit Tim
Encore: Queen of Eyes Robyn electric, Tim acoustic
I'm posting a review of last night's show. There are others out there with
alot of good stories to tell, so stay tuned.
First of all, security was lax, and I could just kill myself for not
bringing my recorder. I brought a backpack in with me, and they never even
bothered to search it, or frisk, or even look me over or anything. Hell,
Eddie (Eb all over the world Eddie) had his D3 hanging from his neck like
Flavor-Flav's big gold watch, and no one said a word! All of you with a
recorder, and half a love for any of these bands, you really owe it to
yourself to try and get in and use the headphone aspect of the concert to
your advantage.
The t-shirts have changed now. They didn't have the lime green shirts
everyone mentioned previously. The shirts are now purple, with "Robyn
Hitchcock" and "Jewels For Sophia" printed in pink lettering, and the big
yellow star in the middle. Very nice design. I purchased an extra one in
case any of you list people aren't able to make it to this tour and still
want a shirt. Just email me.
The headphone idea worked great. I think the idea is that normal PA sound
you hear at gigs is so bass-heavy that it tends to drown out some of the
higher frequency instruments and such. The mix in the headphones focused on
the high end, so by adjusting the volume on the little walkman you are
issued, you can mix the room mix with the headphone mix, and get something
that in the end sounds pretty nice.
IQU came out first, and I really liked them. They are a trio. This
bjorky-looking girl played keyboards, and a bloke played the big standup
bass (ala Soul Coughing). The third member was a DJ/lead guitar/drum
machine operator/ theremin whiz and did all the rest. There was scratchin'
and sampling, and breakbeats, and other cool noises and stuff. All
instrumental. They are on K records, so go seek 'em out.
Sonic Boom was next. One man and a row of six Speak and Spell machines. He
has rewired the circuitry on them so they produce odd alien sounds, and for
the next 30 minutes, proceeded to weave this big rumbling ambient Aphex
Twin/Eno-like soundscape. After the first five minutes or so, I was bored
of it. But the ability to take something as everyday as a Speak and Spell,
and come out with something akin to Apollo is pretty laudable I think.
Then out pops Robyn. Polka dot shirt. And played these songs, tho I might
screw up the order:
Gene Hackman
I Something You
enter Tim Keegan:
De Chirico Street
Jewels For Sophia
Beautiful Queen
exit Tim, then Robyn plays
Freeze
and leaves,
and then Robyn and Tim come back and play
Queen of Eyes.
I believe I have it right. Do I? Eddie? Michaels?
After Robyn, Michael and I walked around a bit, and ran into Eddie, and
ended up skipping the Sebadoh set. Oh well.
Finally, Flaming Lips. I was looking forward to seeing them after finally
getting to hear Soft Bulletin and loving it. The show was a multimedia
event, with video synched up to backing tracks, and Flaming Lips playing
and singing along to it. I would've enjoyed less backing tracks, and more
live music, but the video show was enjoyable. The best part of the video
show for me was the drummer. The Flaming Lips have no drummer on tour, but
they managed to film a few different drummers playing drums for the various
songs before they went out on tour, so you see this cyber drummer on the
big screen behind them, providing the beats for the songs, and kind of
smiling down on the three Lips who are playing on the stage.
Wayne (lead singer) did lots of theatrical stuff, like banging a huge gong
every now and then, and throwing lots and lots of confetti into the crowd.
And had some puppets sing the songs for him as well.
I left about 45 min. into the Lips set, as my feet were killing me, and it
was about 1am.
I had a blast. Great show, great concepts, great musical acts, great
t-shirts (and tomato pen!!) and great as always to meet up with the PFC
(Portland Feg Contingent).
=jbj=
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