Robyn Hitchcock... Gigography

The Soft Boys with Young Fresh Fellows
Concert appearance: Mon., 19 Mar. 2001

Fletcher's
Baltimore, Maryland US

Set list:

Kingdom of Love
Only the Stones Remain
Tonight
You'll Have to Go Sideways
Old Pervert
Queen of Eyes
Underwater Moonlight
Human Music
City of Shame
Pulse Of My Heart
I Wanna Destroy You Dedicated to George W. Bush
Insanely Jealous
Mr. Kennedy
Encore: Sudden Town
Encore: Leppo and the Jooves
Encore: Bells of Rhymney (Pete Seeger/Idris Davies)
Encore: Airscape

Young Fresh Fellows opened, and were good, but too loud for my taste. I had
staked out a spot about 10 feet from the stage, directly under the PA
speakers, so I could get a good angle for my video. (which turned out OK,
but the sound is kinda distorted because I was so close; also, I ran out of
tape at the very end of the set proper, missing all of the encores. In a
way, this was a blessing, as I was happy to bounce and dance through Leppo
without having to worry about messing up the video). Matthew still looks
jetlagged to me, but his playing didn't suffer. Robyn was in fine shape,
Kimberly looked to be having a blast, particularly on Sideways and Kennedy,
when he really was jamming out pretty ferociously. Morris was solid as
always, but didn't seem as jazzed by the experience as Kimberly. The band
sounded really tight, Robyn's voice strong, the guitars meshing really
nicely. I was really impressed by the new tunes (Pulse, Kennedy & Sudden
Town), which make me wonder if this is going to be a continuing venture,
rather than a blip in history centered solely on the Moonlight re-release.
I don't know, but these guys seem to have a future to me. Although so many
of the songs were 21 years old, it didn't sound like a cheap reunion effort
(Eagles, Kiss, Fleetwood Mac, anyone?), but rather a vibrant and current,
powerful band effort. I could definitely see Kimberly sticking it out -- he
really was having a great time, relishing even the RH solo tunes (he really
rocked out to City of Shame, as natural a SBs tune as any in RH's solo or
Egyptians career).

I was struck by the focus on Moonlight-era tunes, which I guess is natural
given the lineup and the whole reason for putting this thing together. On
the other hand, Human Music in particular was great (perhaps because it is
one of the few CoB tunes that sound like the Moonlight version of the band).
Leppo was amazing as well, Rhymney sweet and well played, and Airscape was,
well, the same as you would expect.

All and all, a very enjoyable show. . .

Ed


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