Robyn Hitchcock... Gigography

The Soft Boys
Concert appearance: Sat., 2 Nov. 2002

Slim's
San Francisco, California US

Set list:

Hear My Brane
Kingdom of Love
Queen of Eyes
Mr. Kennedy
My Mind Is Connected To Your Dreams
Insanely Jealous
Man With the Lightbulb Head
Chinese Bones
Narcissus
La Cherité
Sudden Town
(I Want To Be An) Angelpoise Lamp "Seven Winged Bat" version
Underwater Moonlight
Encore: Rock 'n' Roll Toilet
Encore: Bells of Rhymney (Pete Seeger/Idris Davies)
Encore: I Wanna Destroy You
Encore: Stuck Inside of Mobile With Memphis Blues Again (Bob Dylan)
Encore: Chapter 24 (Pink Floyd)
Encore: Om
Encore: If You Know Time
Encore: Only the Stones Remain

From Adam:
I caught the Boys last Saturday in the city. Great show, but not perfect. They played all the best known and loved stuff, like Rock N Roll Toilet, I Wanna Be An Anglepoise Lamp (formerly I Wanna Be a Seven-Winged Bat), I Wanna Destroy You, Queen Of Eyes, and (my favorite) Only The Stones Remain. They also played some of the new disc, probably three or four songs. I was kind of surprised that the show seemed to be as much a Robyn and the Egyptians concert as it was a Soft Boys show. Probably at least half of the material they did was from his solo records, or with the Egyptians, which was cool, but they weren't all that tight on some of the songs. Robyn goofed at least twice on vocals, coming in too early and throwing off the rest of the band. Kimberly Rew was awesome; manic, spastic, and definitely the most fun to watch. The crowd was enthusiastic and loud, we called them out for two encores which the band seemed to really appreciate. They saved the best for last. playing a great version of Dylan's Oh Mama to end the second encore. All in all, much fun.


From Drew:

>Soft Boys' Amoeba Music in-store appearance, Haight Street, San Francisco,
>Nov. 2 2002. A *dynamite* show - quite possibly the best electric set I've
>heard from RH and/or the boys in 15 years!

I think they probably played as well as they did at Slim's the night
before, but I wasn't as enthusiastic about the in-store. Might've
been because I was tired, might've been the fact that we'd heard
six of ten songs at Slim's, I dunno. I was happy to hear "I Love
Lucy" (which sticks in my head and gets new sections and even
more vocal melodies) and "Pulse of my Heart" (which is my favorite
of the more straightforward tracks on Nextdoorland), but I've never
liked "Vegetable Man" in any form.

No, I would say the best electric set was this one, the ballbusting
21 songs from Slim's:

1. Hear My Brane
2. Kingdom of Love
3. Queen of Eyes
4. Mr. Kennedy
5. Mind Is Connected
6. Insanely Jealous
7. The Man With the Lightbulb Head
8. Chinese Bones (going out to Michele)
9. Narcissus
10. La Cherite
11. Sudden Town
12. I Want to be a Seven-Winged Bat (it did end with the drawn-out
"Aaaan-gle-poiiiiise")
13. Underwater Moonlight (with an INTENSE showstopper "feed the fish"
monologue)

14. Rock 'n' Roll Toilet ("for Keith Richards")
15. Bells of Rhymney ("we've been practicing this since 1976[?]")
16. I Wanna Destroy you ("dedicated to George W. Bush for the second year
running")
17. Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again
18. Chapter 52
19. Om ("for George Harrison and Sterling Morrison")

20. If You Know Time
21. Only the Stones Remain

This doesn't even capture the monologues, including a terrific one about
Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha sitting on the sofa watching TV and eating
chips, and a particularly sensitive intro to "Lightbulb Head" about how most
songs are about the singer's prowess at either love or protection.

>5. Mind Is Connected (with part of the bassline played by plucking the
>string and then turning the tuning pegs rather than fretting the notes -
>neat!)

Yeah, that seems to be how he plays it -- I thought it was cool too.
I have to admit that I miss that rapidly descending bassline in "Chinese
Bones," though.


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