Robyn Hitchcock... Gigography

Robyn Hitchcock
Concert appearance: Fri., 25 Mar. 2005

Southpaw
Brooklyn, New York US
all requests

Set list:

Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands (Bob Dylan)
Glass Hotel
Ghost Ship
Surgery
Mexican God
Trilobite
She Doesn't Exist
The Crystal Ship (Doors)
Mind Games (John Lennon)
A Man's Got To Know His Limitations, Briggs
Arms of Love w/ Deni Bonet
De Chirico Street w/ Deni Bonet
Driving Aloud (Radio Storm) w/ Deni Bonet
Sinister But She Was Happy w/ Deni Bonet
Egyptian Cream w/ Deni Bonet
Beautiful Queen w/ Deni Bonet
Encore: The Devil's Coachman
Encore: Queen of Eyes
Encore: Gigolo Aunt (Syd Barrett) w/ Deni Bonet
Encore: Rain (The Beatles) w/ Deni Bonet
Encore: Waterloo Sunset (Kinks) w/ Deni Bonet
Encore: W Sucks (But Rumsfeld Is the Anti-Christ)

Last night's Southpaw show....

...was amazing! Robyn looked great -- lizard shirt, white hair, good shape,
lots of genuine smiling -- and played even better. A real groovathon of
wonderful songs, including some audience requests and a few pretty nifty
covers. And I *finally* got to hear "Ghost Ship" -- I've seen Robyn 30+
times, and have never seen him perform my favorite song! But he took my
request, woo-hoo!

Deni Bonet joined him for the last half of the show, which meant a
scattering of "Moss Elixir" tunes: "Beautiful Queen" never sounded better.
They also played "Sinister but Happy," "De Chirico Street," and broke out
"Egyptian Cream."

Trying to remember some solo stuff -- "Glass Hotel" sounded damn good. I
don't recall anything from "Luxor" or "Spooked," though. He gave a long
introduction to "Everyone's Got to Know their Limits, Briggs."

As for covers, Robyn played Lennon's "Mind Games," the Kink's "Waterloo
Sunset," the Beatles "When the Rain Comes," Barrett's "Gigolo Aunt," Dylan's
"Sad Eyed Lady of the Low Lands," and the band's "Walcott's Medicine Show."
(Not sure about the actual title there...)

Best of all, he just looked....you know, *happy.* Before the show, he even
came out and visited the long line waiting to get in, reminding us to "write
big" when we turned in our requests.

--Quail


I was front 'n' center at Southpaw in Brooklyn on
3/25/05. Here's how it went down. It was an
all-acoustic show.

Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands (Dylan. with harmonica.
he stopped after about 4 minutes and said "I'll finish
that tomorrow at Maxwell's.")

Glass Hotel

(After Glass Hotel, Robyn said "Thank you, fellow
clothes-wearers." People started throwing request
lists up to the front and yelling out requests. He
agreed to play Ghost Ship after warning us that it was
long, and prefaced it by telling the sound engineer,
"Put a bit of rock-and-roll delay on the voice, if you
haven't already.")

Ghost Ship

(More reading of written requests: "More requests, all
from North America! ...Anal Damage City? I've played
that already." He prefaced the next song by saying
"Most of my songs fall into a divide before 1988 or
after 1988, after which I wasn't as much fun, but I
gained a bit of depth. Why? Did I fall off my
motorbike? Did I change my drugs? Did I fire my
manager? I fired my manager!")

Surgery
Mexican God
Trilobite (with a recycled [!!!] intro about a
collection of cells insultingly being called one name,
like Lisa)
She Doesn't Exist (absolutely exquisite)
The Crystal Ship (Doors)
Mind Games (Lennon)
A Man's Gotta Know His Limitations, Briggs

At this point, Deni came out.

Arms of Love (with harmonica)
DeChirico Street (dedicated to Tim Keegan)
Radio Storm
Sinister But Happy (it took a lot of badgering to get
him to play this)
Egyptian Cream

("So, people come up to me and say, 'Why do you write
songs about sex and death, Mr. Hitchcock?' and I say,
'You're kidding.'")

Beautiful Queen (dedicated to Michele)

(Robyn and Deni leave. Robyn returns after a few
minutes.)

Devil's Coachman
Queen of Eyes (my request, yay! alternate lyrics: "In
the horrible age of decay and abuse, it's good to know
someone has got an excuse.")

(Deni returns and we all play "Stump the fiddle
player." Deni kept up with the following three songs
very well, despite never having heard them before.
Robyn provided dubious help by advising her before
each one of the key changes and telling her, "it's
psychedelic.")

Gigolo Aunt (Barrett)
Rain (Beatles)
Waterloo Sunset (Kinks)
Song that goes "Everybody knows that Dubya sucks but
Rumsfeld is the antichrist."

And that's the end!

- Becky


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