'Sweet Home Quarantine' online show on StageIt.com

Review by Adrienne Meddock from Zub Records
The show opens as Robyn, along with Perry the Lobster, kicks off the all- request Robyn Hitchcock show with one of my personal favorites, ‘My Wife and My Dead Wife.’ He's had a real haircut and is in good voice and mood. On the line “my wife sits in a chair” he gazes at Perry park next to him on a seat. I love that he has fun with his old songs, even ones as revered as this.

Robyn offers a twofer: letting requester Chris know that “this is what you get when you rub the lamp with the right kind of polish.” ‘Railway Shoes’ follows, with emphatic guitar accompaniment, Robyn's getting great droning overtones from his acoustic. The Groovers in the StageIt comments are well pleased.

Soft Boys are up next. Robyn informs this was written back when he put as many chords as he could to a poem he'd written in his songwriting. He tells us he'll play as many as he can remember. The request for ‘It's Not Just the Size of a Walnut’ when he hits the name Kenneth in the lyrics he pauses an aside, “I've just sent an email to Kenneth….” Back to the song, a Beatles-meets-Beefheart-meets-balladeer mashup.

Tubby's in Studio C with Emma. Ringo is lurking. He's eaten 3 of Tub’s meals that day, naughty Ringi. Emma announces the next song, ‘Socrates in Thin Air,’ is on the upcoming Hitchcock album on Tiny Ghost Records. She is a one-person full-court-press promotion team and it's great.

70’s song holdover from last week's gig comes with a story. The Soft Boys had a wonderful gig in Edinburgh on the bill with the Only Ones, The Groovers all hold their breath and yep it's ‘Another Girl, Another Planet’ and I turn into a quivering bowl of trifle. Robyn finishes, suitably moved by this nonpareil pop lodestar, saying "you can only write that once and most of us haven't written it at all."

Emma announces her June tour to Australia. She is permitted to travel because of her Aussie passport so she's going alone: no cats, no Reg. She’ll rehearse with a pick-up band when she hits the continent. She tells us that Robyn will continue SHQ while she's gone. There's some dispute over whether it is going to be pre-recorded or transcontinental or how that will be arranged. The Groovers get a treat of a long time SHQ favorite ‘(A Man's Gotta Know His Limitations) Briggs.’

Hitcho announced he has a fall tour in New England with Emma. The Groovercasts will continue, which Emma jokingly dubbed them the “Live from a Quite Shit Hotel on a Dubious Highway” shows.

The Folds went to the vet’s for kitty dental care so I imagine that was a project. This was by way of introduction to ‘Television’ from Spooked with Emma joining on vocals. This is a very delicate song with a very quiet wind down, a very nice denouement for the evening. Emma suggests they have a new album project, Simply Having a Dismal Christmas Time. Robyn suggests it will not be a full-assed Christmas album but maybe just one cheek. We see what you meant there.

Robyn puts on his best Bob-voice and uses his bare finger to play slide guitar on ‘We're Going to Live in the Trees’ another one from Spooked.

Emma comes back in time to hit the 5-minute extension and sings ‘Who Knows Where the Time Goes’ and it's a Sandy Denny folk lady revival. Is that Pachouli I smell?

The extra time isn't wasted because we get ‘Sickie Boy,’ the Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3 tune. But now our bonus time has run out and we're sent on our ways, bidding us peace and love, channeling the other Ringo.

--Adrienne Meddock, Looking for a Bargain on Iron Sledges