Robyn Hitchcock... Gigography

Robyn Hitchcock
Concert appearance: Tue., 5 Apr. 2005

Lions Lair
Denver, Colorado US

Set list:

Devil's Coachman
My Wife And My Dead Wife
Beautiful Girl
Queen Elvis
Ole Tarantula
Up On Cripple Creek (The Band)
Full Moon In My Soul
Glass Hotel
No, I Don't Remember Guildford
Sleeping With Your Devil Mask
Wax Doll
Television
Queen Of Eyes
Trash
Visions Of Johanna (Bob Dylan)
Listening To The Higsons medley
Stayin' Alive (Bee Gees) medley
Nietzsche's Way
New Age (Velvet Underground)
Only The Stones Remain
Brenda's Iron Sledge medley
Funky Town (Lipps Inc.) medley
When You're In Love With A Beautiful Woman (Dr. Hook) medley/in audience
Sound + Vision (David Bowie) medley/in audience
Kung Fu Fighting Fighting (Carl Douglas) medley/in audience
Encore: A Day In The Life (The Beatles)
Encore: Madonna Of The Wasps
Encore: Creeped Out
Encore: I Wanna Destroy You

I saw Robyn at the Lion's Lair in Denver the other night. I drove from
Grand Junction for 4 hours through snow and freezing rain to see him
for the 17th time.

I arrived at the venue early and was delighted to find Robyn wandering
around. No one else had the nerve to speak to him, so I struck up a
conversation with him, We chatted about gigs I had seen and some of our
favorite places in California. He was much more jovial, cordial and
relaxed than I remember him in the past.

He told me that he very rarely follows a set list these days because he
gets so many audience requests. He then said it would be an all request
show that night and if there was anything I wanted to hear, to jot it
down. A few of us early birds wrote down song titles, hoping he'd play
one or two of them. I was ecstatic when he played 5 of mine

Here is the set list from the other night. The songs I requested are
asterisked.

Devil's Coachman
My Wife And My Dead Wife ("This song is so old, I think it votes
Republican now")
Beautiful Girl
Queen Elvis ("This song is not about Morrissey")
Oli Tarantula
Up On Cripple Creek*
Full Moon In My Soul
Glass Hotel
No, I Don't Remember Guildford* (He introduced this song by saying,
"People usually ask me where babies come from. I tell them, 'the west'.
The song after this is about where babies come from. This song is about
where babies end up.")
Sleeping With Your Devil Mask (He mentioned that he recently performed
a wedding for two friends and played this song at their reception)
Wax Doll
Television
Queen Of Eyes*
Trash* (Before the song: "The only thing we learned from the
psychedelic experiences we undertook in the 60s was how to undertake
psychedelic experiences"; After the song: "Can you believe *I* wrote
such a cynical, mean-spirited song?")
Visions Of Johanna* ("This guy was anything but psychedelic, but
without him, there'd be none of that. And without this song, I would
have very few of my own songs to play for you tonight".)
Listening To The Higsons/Stayin' Alive (Told a story about his
girlfriend's father who was a talent scout on an Australian television
show and how he tried in vain to keep the Bee Gees off his show)
Nietzsche's Way
New Age
Only The Stones Remain
Brenda's Iron Sledge/Funky Town
When You're In Love With A Beautiful Woman/Sound + Vision/Kung Fu
Fighting (He left the stage and strolled around the bar and through the
audience singing this medley.)

ENCORE
A Day In The Life
Madonna Of The Wasps
Creeped Out
I Wanna Destroy You ("This is for Dicky Cheney and it goes out sideways
to everyone he comes in contact with".)

After "Destroy" he apologized that his voice was gone and said he was
going to change out of his work clothes and mingle and sign shit. I
bought a "Please don't call me Reg, it's not my name" t-shirt and had
him sign it to my wife, who was unable to attend. He wrote:

Hello Carol - come more!
Robyn H

She loved it!

We chatted a bit longer about the show, I thanked him for coming to
Denver and told him I looked forward to seeing him again. He said he
loves it there and won't let 6 years elapse until he passes through
again.

I walked away thrilled. I have never gone away from a Robyn show
disappointed. Of course, I listened to his CDs all the way back to
Grand Junction. Seeing him live has always inspired my creative side
and seeing and hearing him this week, especially since his voice and
playing were in top form, has made me realize just how big an influence
he wields on my music. Tom Clark said years ago that listening to Robyn
makes him happy and I would have to concur. Something in his voice and
his words makes all life's problems seem so insignificant. At least
until the show's over.

Back to lurking...

Cheers!
-g-


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