- Date
- February 22, 2003
- Venue
-
Largo
Los Angeles, California (West Hollywood)
- Billed As
- Robyn Hitchcock
- Gig Type
- Concert
- Guests
- w/ Baby Lemonade, Jon Brion, and Grant Lee Phillips
I was very excited when he opened the show with "Ghost Ship", a
song I had never heard performed live before. He quickly
followed on the same theme with the "Wreck of the Arthur Lee",
which I probably hadn't seen him perform since the Respect
tour. And even solo accoustic, the song was powerful enough to
fill the room, with Robyn imitating the trumpet parts at the top of
his lungs.
This foreshadowed the event of later that evening when he was
joined on stage by a band whose name I can't remember
(Lemon something) to cover three LOVE songs. Sorry, not
familiar with that band enough to tell you what songs they were.
But they were very fun. Robyn sang to them, sans guitar.
Though I was familiar with the two Roxy Music songs he and Jon
Brion covered. "Let's do side two of Avalon" Robyn suggested
and they ran through "The Main Thing" and "Take a Chance with
Me". As Jon started "To Turn You On", Robyn suggested, "I think
we better move on ."
Grant Lee Phillips soon joined them on stage. They began with
a country version of "Uncorrected Personality Traits". Toward the
end they played "The Sleeping Nights of Jesus", another I had
never heard live. They also took a moment to celebrate Robyn's
50th.
As always, Robyn's comments between songs were hilarious.
He covered everything from George W. Bush to Jim Morrison. I
won't attempt to repeat them here because I could never make
them as funny.
Unfortunately he only did one set (he usually does two at Largo).
But when he asked for requests, somebody screamed out
"Living with the Higsons"-- which prompted Robyn to create a
new song there on the spot. It was so much fun!
What can I say, the man is a genius? How many performers
can you see about two times a year and still hear songs you'd
never heard live before.
I was very happy that as we were exitting I got a chance to shake
his hand, thank him for a great show and wish him a happy
birthday.
Tom M.