lobsterman Subject: March 7th, Milestones, Rochester, NY
I think that what originally was intended to be a "Robyn Hitchcock 101 Primer" gig for the uninformed (Robyn has never, to my knowledge, played in Rochester before) ended up being a great experience where the audience surprised him and met him halfway. The cones: About 25 of them when I walked in (I was the first to buy a cone), only one left when i exited the building. The clothes: Robyn wore a white shirt with black vest. Encore was the white shirt with black polka dots. The guitar: The blue telecaster was utilized. Note: This was the first gig to feature the red lightbulb. Tell your grandkids. The red lightbulb screwed into the top of the green cone. It was rapturous. The set: Easily 100min,
maybe closer to 105. acoustic:somewhere in the electric portion, Robyn started playing the chords for"Went To See The Gypsy" by Dylan. It was just a tease tho, as he stopped and switched to something more familiar. The show started and ended with readings/ad-libs from the anthology "Great Stories of Mystery and Suspense". Like I said before, it started out as a routine "Here's some of my hits." gig. But the audience really responded-----singing along to "Balloon" and "Madonna", whooping during every guitar solo, dancing during some of the later stuff, yelling out "We love you Robyn" after every song in the encore. You could tell that Robyn was affected, and that the crowd was too--there was very little talking (from the crowd i mean), even during the longer stories. Thanks be to god for the Dear Janes, who got Robyn to play "Daisy Bomb". I desperately wanted to hear something new. Dear Janes continue a tradition of fine opening bands for Robyn. I liked their stuff. I really liked their sound (a big upright bass, an acoustic guitar, and an electric guitar.) That's all. its 3:45am. but i am buzzed on road caffeine, and gig vibes and knew i must pound this out now, and then sleep. I taped the show with my recently repaired Sony D6, I listened to bits here and there, and it sounds very good. trades later?? Hope you enjoyed this review. Please keep those reviews coming. I've REALLY enjoyed reading the ones so far. I want Knitting Factory epistles from every one of you! :) ps. this was the best robyn solo gig i've ever been to.
-jbj |
