i'm fucking MAGIC! i wanted it to not snow so badly, that it didn't snow. you're welcome, everyone.
speaking of magic...robyn was just as magical the second time around. i just saw him at the sellersville theatre tonight. i rushed over right after work to get a ticket and i was fortunate to get the last front row seat left, all the way on the end. it was perfect, because even though they have cabaret seating in front of the rows of seats, no one showed up to claim the table directly in front of me so i had a clear view all evening. i was also pleased to see a handful of people there that i knew, and everyone i spoke to after the show was equally as impressed with his performance. i'm still kind of in awe of his...just...his being. it's kind of hard to explain. but i feel like he's on a whole other plane of existence which explains the absurdity of some of the lyrics in his songs and the things he says on stage. i don't know. it's so hard to look away from him, too. i'm just really glad i saw him twice. it was a different set this night; some of the songs were the same, like he opened with "the abyss" both times, and he did "i often dream of trains" and "my wife and my dead wife" and "adventure rocket ship" and "only the stones remain" on both nights, but he only did "n.y. doll" saturday night and he only did "the wreck of the arthur lee" tonight. which was cool, a tribute to arthur kane one night, and a tribute to arthur lee on another night. he certainly has great taste in music, as witnessed by those two songs, and his cover choices. leonard cohen, dylan, townes van zandt, and bowie all happened tonight. he's a wonderful creature and i hope someone out there reads this and decides to see him sometime because you most definitely will not regret it.
OH YEAH and some amazing human recorded saturday night's performance and you can listen to the whole thing HERE.
04 March 2014
02 March 2014
robyn hitchcock
i'm really, really glad i decided to go to this show tonight. because i was thinking i would just go to the one that's happening on monday at the sellersville theatre, but if we're getting the snow i keep hearing about, it may not happen. if it's not cancelled i'm totally going to see him again, though. i called the theatre to ask if they knew anything about it and the lady i spoke with said it depends on if robyn is able to get there on monday and kept telling me i'd be reimbursed for my ticket until i said "i didn't buy a ticket yet; i'm just trying to decide if i should see him tonight, in case monday doesn't happen." and she said "oh, i see. yeah, go tonight." so, thanks, lady at sellersville theatre whose name i have already forgotten, because you made my night.
i got there late to the meet and greet at randy now's man cave and apparently missed a short in store performance. balls! but i was able to buy his new record and have him sign it. have you ever seen robyn hitchcock before? i'd seen pictures but never seen him in person. being in his presence is like being around a unicorn or something. i don't know how to explain it, except what i said to my boss via text after meeting him: "he's other worldy. have you ever looked into his eyes? he doesn't look real." to which he replied: "he's magical." so there you have it. he was very sweet but very dry; he's very funny in an understated kind of way. and just lovely to be around.
the show was at the open arts stage, also in bordentown. the opening band was the grip weeds. they were kind of like a 60s pop group, complete with velvet jackets and tight flares. and they were really good too, even though i kind of wish they had played a shorter set. but it was sort of funny to me to watch this band, all guitars and bass and bongos and tambourine, and then have robyn come up with just a guitar and absolutely blow them away within the first few seconds of his set. alright, so honestly, i don't know much about him, and i'm not familiar with much of his work. i know he was in the soft boys and i love underwater moonlight but i knew not to expect any of that. but it didn't matter that i didn't know the songs. actually i think it kind of enhanced it for me. i was hearing the songs for the first time, live, right in front of him. he makes the guitar sound like it has about twenty strings on it and his voice is all over the place and almost trance like. ok, reading back over that, it makes no sense. i apologize. but i told you earlier, he's magical, so it wouldn't be right for him to make sense.
he talked in between some of the songs and the stuff he would say was sort of bizarre, abstract ramblings, but very, very funny. when he started talking about cats and tuna fish and baths (i can't write it all in here because it would lose all funniness) everyone was cracking up. he's so funny but never really laughs himself. except when he accidentally said "misshapen parrots" and then said "parrots? i said that wrong...misshapen parrots? fuck. jesus. what would you even do with a parrot that was the wrong shape? i meant...misshapen pirates." and he was laughing at himself. it was cute. then the encore was a bob dylan song - "visions of johanna." and then he talked about who was britain's bob dylan, and that really it was syd barrett, who had come and gone before the contest had even begun, and that david bowie must have eventually won the title of britain's bob dylan. so he played syd barrett's song "gigolo aunt." and then "you've got to hide your love away," accompanied by the grip weeds. which was kind of cool. oh and also he had left the stage at the beginning of the encore and played it out in the aisles. i love that kind of shit.
but, my favorite part was probably early on, when he was talking about how all great artists have one thing in common - they're dead. and they don't know what an impact they've had and of course they did all of their great work before they were dead. and how jim morrison was the ultimate rock star and then asked if anyone had seen the documentary "new york doll" about arthur kane and i was like OH MY GOD YES I HAVE and he played "n.y. doll" which was a song he wrote about arthur after having seen that and it was really beautiful and i had tears in my eyes.
if the show happens on monday i will be there for sure and i think you should go too, and wish robyn a happy birthday.
i got there late to the meet and greet at randy now's man cave and apparently missed a short in store performance. balls! but i was able to buy his new record and have him sign it. have you ever seen robyn hitchcock before? i'd seen pictures but never seen him in person. being in his presence is like being around a unicorn or something. i don't know how to explain it, except what i said to my boss via text after meeting him: "he's other worldy. have you ever looked into his eyes? he doesn't look real." to which he replied: "he's magical." so there you have it. he was very sweet but very dry; he's very funny in an understated kind of way. and just lovely to be around.
the show was at the open arts stage, also in bordentown. the opening band was the grip weeds. they were kind of like a 60s pop group, complete with velvet jackets and tight flares. and they were really good too, even though i kind of wish they had played a shorter set. but it was sort of funny to me to watch this band, all guitars and bass and bongos and tambourine, and then have robyn come up with just a guitar and absolutely blow them away within the first few seconds of his set. alright, so honestly, i don't know much about him, and i'm not familiar with much of his work. i know he was in the soft boys and i love underwater moonlight but i knew not to expect any of that. but it didn't matter that i didn't know the songs. actually i think it kind of enhanced it for me. i was hearing the songs for the first time, live, right in front of him. he makes the guitar sound like it has about twenty strings on it and his voice is all over the place and almost trance like. ok, reading back over that, it makes no sense. i apologize. but i told you earlier, he's magical, so it wouldn't be right for him to make sense.
he talked in between some of the songs and the stuff he would say was sort of bizarre, abstract ramblings, but very, very funny. when he started talking about cats and tuna fish and baths (i can't write it all in here because it would lose all funniness) everyone was cracking up. he's so funny but never really laughs himself. except when he accidentally said "misshapen parrots" and then said "parrots? i said that wrong...misshapen parrots? fuck. jesus. what would you even do with a parrot that was the wrong shape? i meant...misshapen pirates." and he was laughing at himself. it was cute. then the encore was a bob dylan song - "visions of johanna." and then he talked about who was britain's bob dylan, and that really it was syd barrett, who had come and gone before the contest had even begun, and that david bowie must have eventually won the title of britain's bob dylan. so he played syd barrett's song "gigolo aunt." and then "you've got to hide your love away," accompanied by the grip weeds. which was kind of cool. oh and also he had left the stage at the beginning of the encore and played it out in the aisles. i love that kind of shit.
but, my favorite part was probably early on, when he was talking about how all great artists have one thing in common - they're dead. and they don't know what an impact they've had and of course they did all of their great work before they were dead. and how jim morrison was the ultimate rock star and then asked if anyone had seen the documentary "new york doll" about arthur kane and i was like OH MY GOD YES I HAVE and he played "n.y. doll" which was a song he wrote about arthur after having seen that and it was really beautiful and i had tears in my eyes.
if the show happens on monday i will be there for sure and i think you should go too, and wish robyn a happy birthday.
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