So I saw Robyn Hitchcock for the first time ever this past Saturday. I am mostly unfamiliar with his work, but I had a guy friend a few years ago who used to go on and ON about how great he was. Now I know why.

The opening act was Sean Nelson (of Harvey Danger fame) and Mark Nichols. They were quite entertaining, even if Sean had some seriously affected stage moves going on (do people REALLY still take off their glasses in that self-involved "look, I'm seriously *thinking*" kind of way? Guess so!). Anyhow they did a few good tunes, and Sean commented that he and Mark had recently done a show with a 27 piece orchestra, covering Harry Nilsson tunes (which they did do, "Gotta Get Up") and they did a Flying Burrito Brothers tune as well ("To Love Somebody", derrr).

OK, so then Robyn came out. At once, I realized how strangely attractive he is (weird). Of course, me being a dolt, I didn't realize his Venus 3 backup band consisted of Peter Buck, Bill Rieflin (really???? the ex-Ministry drummer plays with Robyn Hitchcock now???), and some other dude I didn't know, but apparently is from Portland (and managed to mention between most songs how he'd gone to a "cowboy bar" before the show). One of my friends asked me, "Did Pete Buck look better 20 years ago?" when I'd mentioned I'd met him before at the college radio station I worked at... my answer: no). btw, Rads, now I know why you said spiders represent vaginas, haha... before performing the title track off the last album, Robyn explained that "this is a song about where babies come from." Robyn was great, seemed to be a good mood, and witty, strange and sexy. I don't have the album, but I think a good deal of his material performed was culled from that (although he did drag out "Madonna of the Wasps" too).

Saturday was a long day for me (for personal reasons), so the mere fact that I got my ass to the show was an accomplishment. I made the mistake of wearing high heeled boots though, so by night's end, I was practically running to my car just so I could sit down for a while... pathetic, eh? Anyhow, glad I had the chance to see him, and would recommend him highly to everyone else who's into that sound.

btw, a couple of friends went with me, and asked me what his music was like... I told them "jangle rock" but apparently that didn't translate well to them. Am I right, or not?

D,

The third member of the Venus 3 that you weren't familiar with is Scott McCaughey of Young Fresh Fellows and Minus 5 fame - apparently he moved to PDX in 2006, so I supposed that his commeent of being from Portland is technically correct, but he spent most of his formative years in bands in the Seattle area.

As for your comment about Robyn being "jangle rock" - I suppose that is fair - he definitely is a great performer - I first saw him play over 15 years ago and I saw him again recently and he hasn't lost anything....and he has so many songs in his back catalog that he could probably play all night.

On a side note, it is funny to hear you talk about Sean Nelson having self involved stage moves, as I've seen him around town here in Seattle a number of times and atshows and whatnot and he's kind of a funny, goofy guy in that setting so it is funny that he came off as being self invoived.

oh, Sean was definitely funny and entertaining, and I certainly enjoyed his performance, but I found it amusing that he pulled off his glasses at times, seemingly to MAKE A POINT. The only thing that could've been more cliched is if he'd actually put the end of one side of his glasses in his mouth, while he closed his eyes and deeply considered... My friend even said to me, "if he comes off stage, I'm going to ask him if he just wears the glasses for show."

Great live act. I saw him a couple of years ago at the Belcourt here in Nashville with Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings. Once in a lifetime gig.

also, during the encore, Robyn and the band did "She Said" which was quite good. I think one of the guys that was with me... this is the only song he recognized all night.