Some Enchanted Evening
WARNING! Unless you are an obsessive Robyn Hitchcock fan, read no further and come back tomorrow. It may not make sense.
I went on a feg-pilgrimage with Michael B and Brian Nupp to see The Greatest Living Englishman at the Beachland Ballroom. They are, BTW, two of the nicest feg-chaps you'll ever meet. Very generous with beer and mileage. We arrived in plenty of time (thanks to my expert navigation) and settled in at Music Saves, the tiny record store two doors down. Robyn appeared, a little later than the 7pm advertised in-store, but we were glad to see him of course, at any time. He unpacked a slightly worn Fylde and fiddled around with tuning. He then asked what we wanted to hear. The dozen or so people there seemed perhaps a little surprised, and no one chimed in right away. So I asked for The Bones In The Ground, a fairly rare tune, not very often in Robyn's setlists(!). He said he'd have to see if he remembered how to play it. He did, after a few moments of finger-wiggling. I was certainly impressed, as that was sort of our joke request; also that he could remember it--a 20-odd year old bonus track. Wow! He also sang the one with the chorus, "W sucks, but Rumsfeld is the antichirst." Then I think 1974. And some more. Brian certainly knows what, since he taped it, with Robyn's kind permission. We were only about 3 feet away from him (neon green jeans, black t-shirt, neon yellow shirt, sort of a Jewels For Sophia ensemble), so when it was time to sign things, we were there first. My Can Of Bees insert now has his name in silver and black Sharpie. Then we talked about the music business and his future plans.
At the show proper, Michael Fracasso opened up. He did a rootsy sort of "native Texan" thing, with a lot of Jesus namechecking in the songs. When it was time for Robyn all the assembled fegs and fans dutifully trotted forward to place the requests at the edge of the stage, as suggested by Robyn at the in-store. He said it saves him the trouble of coming up with a set list, but he'd have one anyway. A new way of working for him, he explained. He appeared in a shiny new black and white diamond shirt and got right to it. After each song he'd tune a little, check the requests and play something good. I got Linctus House, Michael got I Don't Remember Guildford, a stunning rendition, I'd say. When it was time he dispensed with the ritual of going away and then coming right back for the encore, which he played a lot of on a white Telecaster, fitted with some sort of humbucking pickup at the neck, but not, as far as I could tell, at the bridge. Hmmm, I don't know what version that is, unless it's a custom mod. At one point he was traipsing amongst the tables, singing his Funky Town/When You're In Love With A Beautiful Woman/Sound And Vision medley.
It was an absolutely fantastic show, with Robyn in fine form, singing more than joking, doing a sort of career retrospective request thing. It was almost like he forgot to promote his new album, so he did stick in a couple of tunes from that for good measure. Also for good measaure he played One L twice in a row, as he insisted the tuning wasn't right the first time. We expected that the second time round would end at the first chorus, but nope, he did the whole thing. It sounded great the first time!
After the show I went to the stage to see what kind of gear might be up there, and there was his own handwritten setlist, very little of which he followed, which is exactly what made the gig so great, though once we saw it we wished we could have heard some of those, too. But we'd have been there all night if he played every request!
I, for one, greatly enjoy Robyn's strummy side (though the rockin' side is another kind of aural pleasure, too!). And some of the newer stuff that I wasn't too sure about from the CDs was a lot more alive for me. V V good.
One final wish is that my stupid camcorder wasn't on the fritz. It would have made a great DVD. Of course, the mental theatre never has technical difficulties, so I'll watch it there--and listen to Brian's boot.
UPDATE: It was probably an American Fat Telecaster, now discontinued, though replaced in the product line by the new American Tele HS. Geek!
WARNING! Unless you are an obsessive Robyn Hitchcock fan, read no further and come back tomorrow. It may not make sense.
I went on a feg-pilgrimage with Michael B and Brian Nupp to see The Greatest Living Englishman at the Beachland Ballroom. They are, BTW, two of the nicest feg-chaps you'll ever meet. Very generous with beer and mileage. We arrived in plenty of time (thanks to my expert navigation) and settled in at Music Saves, the tiny record store two doors down. Robyn appeared, a little later than the 7pm advertised in-store, but we were glad to see him of course, at any time. He unpacked a slightly worn Fylde and fiddled around with tuning. He then asked what we wanted to hear. The dozen or so people there seemed perhaps a little surprised, and no one chimed in right away. So I asked for The Bones In The Ground, a fairly rare tune, not very often in Robyn's setlists(!). He said he'd have to see if he remembered how to play it. He did, after a few moments of finger-wiggling. I was certainly impressed, as that was sort of our joke request; also that he could remember it--a 20-odd year old bonus track. Wow! He also sang the one with the chorus, "W sucks, but Rumsfeld is the antichirst." Then I think 1974. And some more. Brian certainly knows what, since he taped it, with Robyn's kind permission. We were only about 3 feet away from him (neon green jeans, black t-shirt, neon yellow shirt, sort of a Jewels For Sophia ensemble), so when it was time to sign things, we were there first. My Can Of Bees insert now has his name in silver and black Sharpie. Then we talked about the music business and his future plans.
At the show proper, Michael Fracasso opened up. He did a rootsy sort of "native Texan" thing, with a lot of Jesus namechecking in the songs. When it was time for Robyn all the assembled fegs and fans dutifully trotted forward to place the requests at the edge of the stage, as suggested by Robyn at the in-store. He said it saves him the trouble of coming up with a set list, but he'd have one anyway. A new way of working for him, he explained. He appeared in a shiny new black and white diamond shirt and got right to it. After each song he'd tune a little, check the requests and play something good. I got Linctus House, Michael got I Don't Remember Guildford, a stunning rendition, I'd say. When it was time he dispensed with the ritual of going away and then coming right back for the encore, which he played a lot of on a white Telecaster, fitted with some sort of humbucking pickup at the neck, but not, as far as I could tell, at the bridge. Hmmm, I don't know what version that is, unless it's a custom mod. At one point he was traipsing amongst the tables, singing his Funky Town/When You're In Love With A Beautiful Woman/Sound And Vision medley.
It was an absolutely fantastic show, with Robyn in fine form, singing more than joking, doing a sort of career retrospective request thing. It was almost like he forgot to promote his new album, so he did stick in a couple of tunes from that for good measure. Also for good measaure he played One L twice in a row, as he insisted the tuning wasn't right the first time. We expected that the second time round would end at the first chorus, but nope, he did the whole thing. It sounded great the first time!
After the show I went to the stage to see what kind of gear might be up there, and there was his own handwritten setlist, very little of which he followed, which is exactly what made the gig so great, though once we saw it we wished we could have heard some of those, too. But we'd have been there all night if he played every request!
I, for one, greatly enjoy Robyn's strummy side (though the rockin' side is another kind of aural pleasure, too!). And some of the newer stuff that I wasn't too sure about from the CDs was a lot more alive for me. V V good.
One final wish is that my stupid camcorder wasn't on the fritz. It would have made a great DVD. Of course, the mental theatre never has technical difficulties, so I'll watch it there--and listen to Brian's boot.
UPDATE: It was probably an American Fat Telecaster, now discontinued, though replaced in the product line by the new American Tele HS. Geek!
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