Robyn and Emma's house Set List Notes Reviews

Details

Date
June 25, 2021
Venue
Robyn and Emma's house London, England
Billed As
Robyn Hitchcock
Gig Type
Online

Notes

'Sweet Home Quarantine' online show on StageIt.com.
No Emma Swift at this show as she was in Australia.

Reviews

Review by Adrienne Meddock from Zub Records
Today’s show will contain SEA SHANTIES by the suggestion of Andy Washington, an idea so skewed it must be perfect. Robyn is wearing the theme in his most maritime print, the flying fish. He says he’s ready for press gang picking. Ahoy!

He begins in the key of E--”the key of confidence!” with ‘Give Me A Spanner, Ralph,’ harmonica blaring. I don’t believe I caught this on a previous SHQ. Tubs must be out of Studio C. He tells us this one was written in 1973, and the Nixons he is sweating are in honor of his presidency of that year.

‘I Want to Tell You About What I Want’ is always welcome, and the sound is glitching in an artful way, as phrases are randomly repeated. It is a neat effect. The song is so lyrically delicious that an extra bite here or there won’t go wasted. Commentarians say they are having glitches too. It’ll work out.

Robyn songs will intercut the shanties' “fundamentally erotic sound to vintage Bob Dylan fans.” The harmonica comes out, the cats are upstairs, and the traditional ‘Fare You Well Lovely Nancy” is begun and suddenly brightened by bass and depth controls rounding out the wonky sound. Fab! Andy has jiggled a cord and reset the interface. RH: "Excellent wiggling!"

Robyn proclaims it a “cat-free and harmonica-rich night” and points out that the next song, while his, is not technically a sea shanty. ‘Not Even A Nurse’ follows, harmonica still out and resounding. “Sleeping with Your Devil Mask’ is next, and it looks like he is playing slide bare-fingered, and a very vigorous version. For a hot day, he’s very vigorous and upbeat.

The next song is a sea song, if not a shanty, and the lyrics are landing hard with me today: ‘Luminous Rose.’ The carnage of the European wars is a visceral and ever present companion in old Blighty, American shores largely spared from its physical impacts. Too much perspective.

We get a true traditional shanty, ‘Sam’s Gone Away,’ with Andy joining in on percussion by request, tapping a glass. It is an upbeat number, expressing the longing to go to sea. Poor sod.

Robyn tells us we’re "going over the Tropic of Capricorn of the show, past the equator in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Sea Shanties by R Hitchcock Show.”

‘Ghost Ship’ a dreamlike seafaring tale, with a mid-song shout-out for Tubbs as he dares to enter Studio C’s temporarily harp-free zone. When the song ends, he tests Tubbs for harmonica sensitivity. Tubbance actually ventured further in the room and allowed Robyn to hold him for the first show in several weeks.

‘Raining Twilight Coast’ features beautiful fingerpicking. The sea theme has been a great idea and I am quite enamoured. We get a “live with no effect naked singing R Hitchcock" on ‘Adventure Rocket Ship.’ Next, a Patreon “song in A that didn’t make the new album.” Robyn is in great voice and is very energetic. There are “trains across the ocean for drunken submarines” is one line, uniting two big themes. He’ll call it ‘My Sunken Life’ or ‘There Goes Tomorrow.’ “That’s for Emma.”

The show concludes on a sea shanty, the Pogue-esque traditional ‘South Australia.’

--Adrienne Meddock, Out of Dramamine