Variety Arts Center
Details
- Date
- November 21, 1986
- Venue
- Variety Arts Center Los Angeles, California
- Billed As
- Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians
- Gig Type
- Concert
Notes
Opening acts: Salem 66 and The Romans
Picture of November 1986 tour itinerary supplied by Morris Windsor in 2025
Newspaper ad from LA Weekly dated November 20, 1986
Newspaper review from LA Weekly dated December 4, 1986 (transcribed below)
Picture of November 1986 tour itinerary supplied by Morris Windsor in 2025
Newspaper ad from LA Weekly dated November 20, 1986
Newspaper review from LA Weekly dated December 4, 1986 (transcribed below)
Reviews
Los Angeles Times
November 24, 1986
Hitchcock: Fine Line
by Steve Hochman
The Variety Arts Center was an appropriate setting for Robyn Hitchcock And The Egyptians concert Friday. As a songwriter and performer, Hitchcock works on so many different levels at once that he's something of a variety show in himself.
Hitchcock walks with remarkable grace -- a fine line between head-in-the-clouds surrealism and sharp, feet-on-the-ground emotional clarity. His bizarre imagery and observations are grafted to enticingly rocking and hook-filled music. Furrowing his heavy eyebrows and staring intensely and uneasily over the heads of the crowd, the Englishman managed to seem both perfectly sane and absolutely bonkers at once -- especially in his apparently extemporaneous yet minutely detailed (and often hilarious) song introductions.
LA Weekly
Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians,
Variety Arts, Nov. 21.
Friday nights show was a far cry from this spring's sparsely attended Club Lingerie date. The near-capacity crowd was boppin and brain cells poppin as Hitchcocks twisted lyrics and lysergic vocals sent even some of the less memorable tunes flying like protons in a particle accelerator, smashing into the crowds aural pleasure centers at the speed of light. The Egyptians have an amazingly full sound for a three-piece combo, due in no small part to the less-is-more rhythm section of Morris Windsor and Andy Metcalf. Mr. Hitchcocks no amateur himself, and while not exactly a virtuoso, he spun a strange, striated web of delicate Telecaster chaos without missing a single vocal inflection. Despite some annoying feedback problems, there were some great versions of all the Egyptians classics, including an electric Raymond Chandler Evening. The humorous high point was the ultra-harmonious trios a cappella number Uncorrected Personality Traits, done in true English music-hall style. And his between song diatribes - convoluted, surrealistic scenarios that could be about anything from rubber-shovel-wielding Iranians to . . . well, the guy is a laff riot. For the finale, the multi-talented lads played musical instruments, switching around for a rousing rendition of Gotta Let This Hen Out, a rockin end to a show that, if three standing ovations are any indicator, did anything but lay an egg.
Don Bolles
November 24, 1986
Hitchcock: Fine Line
by Steve Hochman
The Variety Arts Center was an appropriate setting for Robyn Hitchcock And The Egyptians concert Friday. As a songwriter and performer, Hitchcock works on so many different levels at once that he's something of a variety show in himself.
Hitchcock walks with remarkable grace -- a fine line between head-in-the-clouds surrealism and sharp, feet-on-the-ground emotional clarity. His bizarre imagery and observations are grafted to enticingly rocking and hook-filled music. Furrowing his heavy eyebrows and staring intensely and uneasily over the heads of the crowd, the Englishman managed to seem both perfectly sane and absolutely bonkers at once -- especially in his apparently extemporaneous yet minutely detailed (and often hilarious) song introductions.
LA Weekly
Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians,
Variety Arts, Nov. 21.
Friday nights show was a far cry from this spring's sparsely attended Club Lingerie date. The near-capacity crowd was boppin and brain cells poppin as Hitchcocks twisted lyrics and lysergic vocals sent even some of the less memorable tunes flying like protons in a particle accelerator, smashing into the crowds aural pleasure centers at the speed of light. The Egyptians have an amazingly full sound for a three-piece combo, due in no small part to the less-is-more rhythm section of Morris Windsor and Andy Metcalf. Mr. Hitchcocks no amateur himself, and while not exactly a virtuoso, he spun a strange, striated web of delicate Telecaster chaos without missing a single vocal inflection. Despite some annoying feedback problems, there were some great versions of all the Egyptians classics, including an electric Raymond Chandler Evening. The humorous high point was the ultra-harmonious trios a cappella number Uncorrected Personality Traits, done in true English music-hall style. And his between song diatribes - convoluted, surrealistic scenarios that could be about anything from rubber-shovel-wielding Iranians to . . . well, the guy is a laff riot. For the finale, the multi-talented lads played musical instruments, switching around for a rousing rendition of Gotta Let This Hen Out, a rockin end to a show that, if three standing ovations are any indicator, did anything but lay an egg.
Don Bolles