Concert Review/Photos: Robyn Hitchcock @ Ram’s Head Live & World Café Live
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
Of the 39 songs played between both performances, only five were repeats.
For my 21st and 22nd opportunities to see the singular talent of Robyn Hitchcock live it would’ve been hard to pass up the two solo shows on Nov. 8 and 9. On the 8th, he played a lunchtime show in Annapolis, MD at Ram’s Head Live while he played World Café Live in Philly on Sunday the 9th. Of the 39 songs played between both performances, only five were repeats. Armed with a six string acoustic guitar, harmonicas and unique wit and wisdom, Hitchcock delivered.
To open Annapolis’ show with the odd time-capsule hilarity of “Don’t Talk to Me About Gene Hackman” was a brilliant move. To follow it up with a deep cut in “Nietzsche’s Way” was a move very few performers could pull off. With hundreds of songs in his repertoire, Hitchcock unspools sonic non sequiturs with ease. The combo at both shows of “Sally Was a Legend” and “You and Oblivion,” and the accompanying message of them being about the same person, was a fascinating insight into songs from the last millennium. And to hear the power and passion evident in “You and Oblivion” that I had not heard before was ear-opening.
There was his signature banter, more on display in Annapolis than Philadelphia. He introduced “The Cheese Alarm” with a plug for Johnny Marr’s show in D.C. and the fact that he and Marr were compatible due to their astrological signs. And his revelation that “San Francisco Patrol” from his 2014 The Man Upstairs is another song in his series of musical interludes into Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry movie Magnum Force was a welcome piece of trivia.
Both shows were highlight-packed. In Annapolis Hitchcock’s solo rendition of “I’m Falling” from one of his records with the Venus 3 (Goodnight Oslo) was utterly gorgeous, as he filled in all the harmonies that would have been from the likes of Scott McCaughey with great care. At the end of the Annapolis show I approached Hitchcock and requested the rarely played “Vegetation and Dimes.” And wouldn’t you know it he obliged on Sunday. Preceding it with another track from the same album (Perspex Island) — “Birds in Perspex” — he played “Dimes” as if he had never forgotten it, eliciting the rock and calm from within its many corridors of sound and vision.
And the six-song encore in Philly was captivating. After his stirring cover of The Psychedelic Furs’ “The Ghost in You” from Upstairs that even Starbuck’s has been playing, a fan from the front row threw a note at Hitchcock’s feet. He read it and played a Julian Cope song (“Charlotte Anne”) that he said he not played in 25 years. Proclaiming how much he liked the sound on the stage of World Café, he concluded the evening with his frequent cover for this tour, Neil Young’s “Motion Pictures” (by, as he said, “the Bob Dylan of the 1970s who was not David Bowie”).
In his sixth decade of life, Hitchcock is seemingly at the height of his powers. May this continue for decades to come.
ANNAPOLIS SETLIST
- Don’t Talk to Me About Gene Hackman
- Nietzsche’s Way
- The Cheese Alarm
- Sally Was a Legend
- You and Oblivion
- Solpadeine
- Trouble in Your Blood
- San Francisco Patrol
- Only the Stones Remain
- Serpent at the Gates of Wisdom
- I Got the Hots
- Madonna of the Wasps
- I’m Falling
- Alright, Yeah
ENCORE
- Andmoreagain (Love)
- Pledging My Time (Bob Dylan)
- Visions of Johanna (Bob Dylan)
PHILADELPHIA SETLIST
- Tonight
- Old Pervert
- Only the Stones Remain
- Sally Was a Legend
- You and Oblivion
- Trouble in Your Blood
- San Francisco Patrol
- Cynthia Mask
- Aquarium
- Unknown New Song
- Birds in Perspex
- Vegetation and Dimes
- My Wife and My Dead Wife
- I Got a Message for You
- Adventure Rocket Ship
- Airscape
ENCORE
- The Ghost in You (The Psychedelic Furs)
- Charlotte Anne (Julian Cope)
- I’ll Be Your Mirror (The Velvet Underground)
- All La Glory (The Band)
- Arnold Layne (Pink Floyd)
- Motion Pictures (Neil Young)
