On October 5th I had the utmost pleasure of seeing Robyn Hitchcock play at an old converted church, now Fremont Abbey Arts Center. This was a very intimate show, almost like having him play in your living room. He played two sold out nights.
Robyn’s songs combine quirky, humorous lyrics with catchy melodies. This was evident when he played his song My Wife and My Dead Wife, where the ghost of his first wife still lives with him, but only he can see her and he can’t decide which wife he likes better, the ghost or his new wife..
At the beginning it was just Robyn and an acoustic guitar, but then Sean Nelson joined him for harmonies (from Harvey Danger). Sean doesn’t age. He has maintained his boyish looks with a mop of golden curls and his harmonies wafted beautifully throughout the room. A bit later Kurt Bloch (Fastbacks, Young Fresh Fellows) joined Robyn and Sean and a guitar was added.
Then after awhile, opener Emma Swift joined th trio and beautiful three-part harmony ensued. Emma sang like a song bird but had strong, gutsy projection and the charm factor increased ten fold.
Robyn made comments about the election, saying no matter if Trump wins the election and blows up the world because no one will remember it happened in 500 years. This led into his song Chinese Bones.
As many times as I’ve seen Robyn play over the last 20 years, I never grow bored of him. As I said, I had the utmost pleasure.
Opener Emma Swift warmed up the audience with melodic songs and her crystal yet gutsy voice that echoed so harmoniously throughout the abbey.
The audience was deathly quiet during her set until her last note rang out and they erupted into thunderous applause.
Robyn Hitchcock is always a pleasure, whether it’s is quirky songs or his twisted anecdotes that often have absolutely nothing to do with any of his songs. He goes off on these very entertaining tangents. There’s no one else like him and he once again put on a stellar show.
– All photos property of Holly Homan, all rights reserved.
