Review: Robyn Hitchcock at the Somerville Theatre

In a break from my personal housing crisis, the Swami and I saw Robyn Hitchcock last Friday in Somerville. We first saw him with the Egyptians in Columbus back in 1993, and I remember that show being awesome. Next, after moving here in 2000 we saw him with Grant Lee Phillips at the Middle East, where they screwed around with a lot of cover songs, including an infamous rendition of “Kung Fu Fighting.” Also thoroughly enjoyable, of course. So when I saw he was coming by again, I immediately bought some tix.

What I didn’t realize until the day of was that Robyn was traveling to a few cities across the US performing the entirety of I Often Dream of Trains, his second solo album from 1984. Now, this is where I reveal that I must not actually be much of a fan, because despite this album being legendary among the knowing, I’d never heard it at all. But what it meant was that I got a very cool opportunity to listen to an album for the first time, played live.

Well, it was fantastic. I mean, you have to take Robyn with a grain of salt sometimes, because he has a love for surrealism that often pushes his lyrics right past reasonable into the downright silly. But the music, the music always makes up for it by being absolutely beautiful, or catchy, or some diabolical combination of both. And with two sidemen that play just about everything except drums, you get a very fluid and multilayered sound that can fill a room without puncturing your eardrums. It’s like a chamber orchestra for the slightly insane.

For visual aid, I can direct the curious to a random guy’s Flickr page, where he took some pics of the event. You can even see Robyn in the polka-dot shirt holding the polka-dot guitar, which is somewhere between totally cool and extremely dorky.

Finally, a word of hurrah to the Somerville Theatre. They’ve more than taken up the slack since Avalon disappeared. Granted, I think GA venues like Avalon tend to stir up more energy in both bands and audiences, but there was always a huge downside of drunk assholes screaming inane nonsense to each other at the bars, an annoying person constantly elbowing you in the back, and an annoying girl in front of you constantly flipping her hair in your face. There’s something to be said for the better behaved types who come to Somerville. Also, how weird is it that you can get popcorn and Twizzlers at a rock show? Hey, not weird if they’re playing movies in the room next door.

Way beyond belief

One of the reasons I’ve been quiet on the blog is that some things have been happening that are a little too painful to describe. Also, even in the relative anonymity of this forum, I’m still a little squirrely about giving details about what’s been happening.

So what the heck has been going on? It turns out that our new neighbor downstairs, who moved in less than two months ago, is completely nuts. She’s been nothing but impossible to deal with since before day one. Thanks to a couple of misunderstandings on her part, she now refuses to speak to the Swami at all and is convinced that our primary life goal is to make her miserable. She has demanded that we make a bunch of stuff right with the condo and is threatening us with all kinds of legal action. Some of the stuff is work that she promised to do the legwork for, but is now something she’s angry about us not doing. She’s also claiming that we are refusing to reimburse her for some work that she shouldn’t have done without asking us first. The problem there is that we’d be happy to pay her, but she doesn’t seem to realize that she has to actually give us an amount first! The whole situation is completely crazy. She’ll go for two weeks not speaking to us, and then tape eight-page handwritten notes full of looniness to our door threatening all kinds of stuff.

So we have made the decision to put our house on the market and get an apartment. We just met with our broker last night and got things rolling. I am really torn up about it—I love our place and I can’t believe someone else is pushing me out, especially now when the real estate market has gone very soft. We’re offering it for about 11% less than we paid. Fortunately we’ve been paying the mortgage down fairly aggressively, so even that low price won’t leave us under water. But the whole situation is just awful. I absolutely cannot believe that my housing went from being absolutely perfect, with great neighbors, to this clusterfuck in less than two years.

This weekend is the first open house, and probably our first attempt at looking at apartments for rent. We’re definitely not going to buy a new place right now, partly because we don’t really want a single family house, and partly because we just don’t want the hassle. Also, the truth is, we can rent a place for about the same amount as our mortgage and not have to worry about things like repairs or whether the lawn looks like crap. And there’s no damn way I’m ever buying a condo again. It’s just not a good idea to tie your living situation to somebody else, and too impossible to trust that your neighbors will always be reasonable. Maybe some people are unfazed by dealing with irrational people, but it has been absolute hell for us. I can’t rule out any behavior by this woman, and I can’t live my life tiptoeing around somebody batshit. And definitely not someone who has such a vendetta against Swami. Does it make any goddamn sense for one trustee in a condo to refuse to speak to another? How is that a constructive way to live your life?

So now I have two worries: First, I’m worried that we won’t get a
buyer before the holidays start up. If that happens then we’ll have to try again in January. And second, I won’t be able to relax at all until I start seeing some apartments that I want to live in. Right now I am about to jump, and I still haven’t seen where I might land.

I just hope that someday this woman comes to face the fact that she has brought misery to us, people who did her some kindnesses and didn’t wish anything bad for her. I know the world doesn’t work that way. Actually, what I really want is just to live in peace. Until we unload this place, I don’t think that’s going to happen.

Almost too true to be funny

The Onion nails it.

President Obama

Yes we muthafuckin did.

Uncertain times

Recently it seems as though things are far less settled than usual, from the large-scale to the personal: the economy, politics, and a new (crazy) neighbor downstairs. I haven’t had much to say publicly on any of it the last few weeks, so it’s been a little quiet in blogtown. (For the neighbor story, even the purported anonymity of this blog doesn’t feel like enough cover for me to publish all the details; let me know if you would like the story emailed to you directly.)

In the midst of all this uncertainty I want to focus on the truly important things in life: the Swami, music, cycling, tennis, friends. And I would like to wish for the following things to increase in this world: rationality, humility, compassion. Those are commodities that seem to be in short supply.