Online review by Steve K (Bearsville and Ardmore shows combined)
Let’s rewind the clock almost forty years to late 1986. I was outside a venue in Philadelphia, lined up to see an all-ages punk multiband extravaganza when an enthusiastic person began handing out flyers for another show. Sure, I’ll take one of those; after all, back then, flyers were one of the prime ways to learn about independently promoted events.

It was an ad for an upcoming gig at Haverford College featuring Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians. I said to a friend, “Oh that guy! He was in that British psych band The Soft Boys, and I’ve heard good things about his solo stuff. I might go?” Not long thereafter, I got a hold of three Hitchcock albums: the studio albums Fegmania! and Element of Light, and the live Gotta Let This Hen Out! (RH is clearly a fan of exclamation points in titles). I was immediately taken with all of it — the wild lyrical twists and turns, the ability of the band to shift seamlessly between rocking out and working a mighty groove, and, on the live album, Mr. Hitchcock’s penchant for twisted storytelling when introducing a song. I was in for sure. No advance tickets were needed; this was 1986.

That show was fantastic. The Egyptians were an ace band, a well-oiled machine, and they could shift dynamic gears with ease. And Robyn was a hell of an engaging, funny frontman. I was really impressed with it all. Thus began my Robyn Hitchcock fandom. His music became the hidden connector for me between, say, Piper-era Pink Floyd/Syd Barrett and the jangly guitars of R.E.M., with whom I was absolutely obsessed at the time. (A brief tangent: a very early version of They Might Be Giants opened that Haverford College show; just two of them in the band at the time and they used a lot of backing tapes).

In the years that have followed, I’ve seen Robyn Hitchcock a lot, but, strangely, almost entirely at solo shows where his penchant for between-song storytelling is even greater, as is his likelihood to head in any direction in his catalog at a whim. After that 1986 show with the Egyptians, despite my seeing a load of Robyn’s solo shows, it was over 30 years before I saw Robyn with a band again: in 2017 at the Bowery Ballroom in New York with Yo La Tengo expertly backing him for a full trip through all of the Black Snake Diamond Role album plus a whole lot of Soft Boys- and Egyptians-related extras.

After that 2017 show? I’ve again seen Robyn many more times, but all were solo until the past week when I caught two gigs with him and his current band (Patrick Berkery on drums, Rick Lollar on guitar, and Todd Bolden on bass, plus, sometimes, Jeremy Fetzer on guitar as well) — one at Bearsville Theater in Woodstock, NY, and one at the Ardmore Music Hall just outside Philly. Both were absolutely stunning trips through power pop and psych, with setlists that featured both strong nods to the past and more current songs including two from his upcoming album, entitled The Confuser, that absolutely held their own against the rest of the set.

The two shows — the Bearsville/Woodstock setlist is here, and Ardmore is here — generally had a lot of songs in common, and everything was great on both nights, not a clunker in the bunch, but as much as I loved Soft Boys standards like “I Wanna Destroy You” (dedicated on both nights to Donald Trump), “Queen of Eyes,” and “Brenda’s Iron Sledge,” I was particularly impressed with some of the less-predictable song choices. “A Globe of Frogs” had a swirling laid-back psychedelic feel and “Driving Aloud (Radio Storm)” positively pulsed with energy. “Oceanside” is a song that Robyn seems to save for full-band gigs, and now that I’ve seen him play it in two shows in a row, I see why. The band is so on their game and that song really bounces and swings as a result.

As always, I bring my drummer-centric focus to the proceedings and I could not have been more impressed with Patrick Berkery’s performance on both nights. His dynamics and “feel” are fantastic. It’s always nice to see a drummer that is unafraid to wallop the drums and give them a good beating, and Berkery does that for sure, but he also knows when to back off. That tension-and-release approach made “Autumn Sunglasses” the absolute standout of both nights for me. It’s a song that I’ve never paid a hell of a lot of attention to previously in its studio version, but in a live setting the band perfectly rode the dynamic waves and it instantly became a favorite of mine. The guitars created a psychedelic haze while the drums alternated between a quiet groove and an insistent thunder.

At Woodstock, guitarist Rick Lollar got to trade solos and riffs with Robyn, while at Ardmore, where Jeremy Fetzer was also onstage, Lollar’s role was more of a traditional rhythm player, and it was Fetzer who got the non-Hitchcock solo nod more often. While they certainly didn’t “need” the third guitar — Lollar, who also backs Emma Swift during her self-described opening set of “sadcore,” is more than up to the job — they used it well in Ardmore and both gigs were further enhanced by Swift’s backing vocals on a run of four songs in the back half of the set. Good lord, she can sing.

What else did I particularly love when I truly loved it all on both nights? It was great to hear my request for “Acid Bird” at Ardmore. That one’s been a fave since my very first listen to Gotta Let This Hen Out! back in 1986 (“That was about life in the west country before most of you were born and a long time after the rest of you are dead”). And big thanks to Robyn and Emma for generally managing song requests via social media. It’s cool when an artist actually gives a damn in that regard. Similarly, “Listening to the Higsons” — another highlight from Gotta Let This Hen Out! — was a delightful surprise as one of the solo songs that Robyn played to open the Ardmore show. The cover of “See Emily Play” in Bearsville sounded as “just like 1967 Floyd” as you could possibly imagine (bassist Bolden really shone on that one). And it was utterly brilliant to finish out both shows with a run of songs that included a cover of “Purple Haze” and a rollicking, joyful stomp through the Soft Boys’ “Rock ‘n’ Roll Toilet” by the full band before Robyn ventured into the crowd both nights for a solo acoustic “A Day in the Life” that quickly turned into a crowd singalong complete with a songending “Bonnnngggggg.”

I’ll also note that, while I really like Ardmore Music Hall, the Bearsville Theater is a particular standout. It’s on the way out of the west end of the town of Woodstock, and, because they have a little bit of land out there, there’s a huge parking lot onsite as well as three bar/restaurants, with a big outdoor picnic area. It’s just the most laid-back, chill venue that I think I’ve ever experienced, and both sound and sightlines inside the theater are fantastic. Well done, Bearsville. (I’ll be back for the Gang of Four in a couple weeks). You have a good thing going there.

Both of these shows were so perfect from start to finish that I don’t think I can pick a favorite. Maybe the slightest of edges goes to the Ardmore setlist (on the other hand, Bearsville could brag that they got that killer “See Emily Play,” which Ardmore didn’t, but, then again, Ardmore got a smoking “I’m Waiting for the Man” that Bearsville didn’t; it’s a close call), but the venue/setting at Bearsville may have leapt into first place on my list of favorite venues anywhere. Thanks to Mr. Hitchcock and his merry band of ace musicians for a couple of great nights. I’m so glad I was there for both shows.