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.
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.
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