Sydney. OK, the Sac set list and a few impressions/highlights of both shows.
6/3/97 Sacramento (if I butchered any of these titles, *please* let me know--I'm still a trainee)
I Dream of Antwoman 1. The opener in Sac was Anton Barbeau and Drag Team Three, a local band. I thought they were good and would see them again. A bit folky with some Beatle-esque tunes. And if I may share, I believe it was dot Chris who said he didn't *want* to like them, but did. :) Anton's a big Robyn fan and was at the SF show the next night.
2. I was very impressed with Tim, and would have liked to have seen more. I'm still kicking myself for not picking up that single while I had the easy opportunity (twice). Drat! Now, I'm not a guitar geek (see dot Chris for that), but his playing was strong and polished, if relatively simple. His voice was beautiful...strong, great range, and he and Robyn sounded so good together! Tim was confident in his message *and* his delivery. I was charmed, to say the least.
3. Robin put on a great show! Gotta share this... He took the stage and said, "It's been about seven years since I've played in Sacramento. I'm sure that in that time every cell in my body has replaced itself, and I'm a completely different person." ...I was DYING! :)
4. I was a little startled to be as taken with Robyn as I was. The quality of his voice was supurb, mesmerizing. Very strong at first, but...well, yes...weakened just a tad as the evening wore on. (Note: Tim seemed to tone it down a bit on the high notes in SF the next night...voice fatigue?) But Robyn's guitar playing! Woah... Those graceful spider fingers were impressive in Sac, but waited until SF to really shine. Hendrix was showing more than in just those two tunes... In Sac, perhaps Robyn had a few playing bloopers (Chris says 5 and I have no reason not to believe him), but all I saw was a little chuckle at one of them. He *did* seem to enjoy himself in Sacramento, but in SF he was really in his element, with an adoring and vocal crowd! Blinkercize was alive and well at both shows.
5. I may have noted a little of the father/son thing between Robyn and Tim that was discussed on the list previously, but IMHO Tim held his own.
6. Regarding the Robynspeak, I expected to hear more given the discussion on this list, so obviously he's toned it down. After one bit of banter in Sacramento about careening down the highway, smashing into a billion pieces, each piece growing horns, etc., Robyn got a good laugh from the audience. He looked up sincerely and said, "I knew you'd understand." (!!!)
7. Last but not least, you N. Cal (and Reno <snicker!>) Fegs are gems! Mark B., Stephen, Chris, and Eddie at the Sacramento show; and Nick, Mark G., Tom, Russ, Carrie, John, and Stephen (again) in San Francisco. When's the reunion? Do I see a movie premier in our futures? :)
Ciao for now, Sydney
chris Subject: sacramento. hey-- ON TO THE SHOW... pre-show...i walking into the venue because it was a cloudy (and rainy) afternoon in sacramento to see if there was a sound check going on. no luck. all i got was a nice hello and short conversation from robyn who said there would not be anything happening for a while. so i left, but only after (susan and k brace yourselves...) shaking his slightly moist hand (he had just came out of the loo). i also saw the man napping later on, but did nothing out of place mind you and kept to my self!! sydney will post a set list unless she was taking notes just to remind herself... TIM: two major impressions here... 1) this guy is an old folkie at heart, and it cannot be denied.His set was too short and it was brilliant. but that is not to say that it was brilliant because it was short; would have been better if it were longer, dig? for a guy (notice gender distinction) singing about relationships, he pulled it off quite well--lyrically. ROBYN: this was a less thAN average performance for robyn. he said he was very tied and it showed. he made five mistakes playing, even one to cause him to explicate about it. thus, he was not in top form guitarically or vocally. there were more consistent chord shapes and positions he used that i noticed from previous times. of note for some of the playing... serpent is in G. G and C being open chords in it and then a D position and a whole set up he played some funky finger stretching chords that i could not figure out. played like this it sounds different in a stripped down way from respect. instead of his usually two pedals he had three all boss, one chorus and another delay. the whole electric set was not that great at all, in my humble. one interesting thing he let go was his amp had the gain and treble turned up for a bit that gave a nice sheen to the songs, before he corrected it. blue telecaster with lace sensor pick-ups--blue rear humbuckler, i am not sure of the front because the color could not be seen. and no flyde, something else--could not read the headstock. (GUITAR GEEK MODE = OFF; PROCEED) the solos and middle eights with the guitar were perhaps the most inspired of his playing. for the first time i could *really* see the hendrix influence in some of it. fashion report... before show white button-up with the green jeans first set; white with black polka-dot long sleeve, black pants encore; diamond shape green on black shirt, noT at all becoming in my book shoe; the black ones he is almost always wearing gig banter... gotta agree with eb here. pretty stale--i had heard most all of it before. but, there was still a bit of spontaneity [sp?] involved. he did announce after arnold lane that it was not written by him but his older brother syd--wide open for interpretation, kids! for those of you who have shows left--get the home single. it is great!! it is great!! also, i got to see all of the cones that were for sale at the show. all of them were well done, except for the cellular cone--a cone with many tiny circles (cells) drawn on it--thus, called the cellular cone, get it?? the question here is would the cone stand the test of time and the drift in technology?? final impressions... tim was great, robyn needed sleep and rest as did i and i often dreams of trains made up to the problems. also, my assessment of the show was perhaps the least impressed as the other fegs there.
Eddie tews. let me also add my two bits on the two shows. after the sacramento show (it was so cool meeting all the fegs, by the way) the consensus was that it had been a subpar show. i agreed at the time, but upon listening to the tapes, i'm not so sure anymore. robyn was much more friendly and chatty, both to the audience and to tim, in sacramento. and the first half of the sacramento show was just dynamite. i think that, whereas in mill valley they really ended with a bang, in sac it was just the opposite: the first half was SO marvelous, and the second half was somewhat lethargic. the two highlights for me were the harmonicaized Only the Stones, from mill valley; and the line, "They opened Peter Sellers heart, and they told him a story," from Chinese Bones in Sacramento. it's funny. the pa systems in mill valley and seattle sounded much better than sac during the show, but the tape of the sac show sounds the best, so that may have something to do with it.
Date: Thu, 5 Jun 1997 Subject: Terrible Lie in Sacramento!
Fegs, I have a confession to make. You see, after the show in Sacramento, Eddie (Seattle Feg) and I stuck around to chat with some folks we'd met, but mostly to see if Robyn would be making an appearance. I really thought we should meetÉI mean, after all, we *were* in the same building. :) Time was marching on, things were getting packed up, and it didn't look good. <pause for drama> It was time for *drastic* measures.
"Would you please tell Robyn that there's a Hedblade here to see him?" I asked with a straight face to a road crew guy. "A Head Blade?" he shot back with raised eyebrows. "Yes." "And he will know what this means?" he asked. "Of course." I said with mild indignance. The guy chats with Steve, Robyn's manager (with a few glances my way), and comes back to let me know he'd sent it through proper channels.
"You're WHO, exactly?" Steve asks me with a *piercing* gaze (seeing if I would flinch, I think). "I'm Sydney." I said with conviction (and trying not to lie a second time). "We're on the fegmaniax list and we'd like to meet Robyn."
Robyn appears momentarily in front of the place to sign a few autographs for waiting fans. <Yeah!!> "YOU'RE a Hedblade?" he asks me. "No, Robyn, actually not. I lied to get you out here (as he's signing my ME disc). I'm sorry. But Jay Hedblade one of my best friends. Does that count?" He smiled (to my relief!), shook my hand and said, "Ah, Jay Hedblade. I spent considerable time with him in Chicago. Please tell him I said hello."
So Jay? I realize I've been riding your coat-tails a lot, dearest, butÉRobyn says "Hi."
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