The doors were to open for the first half at 6:00pm & my bride & I arrived about 20 minutes beforehand, so we were among the first to enter the venue. We sat in the center of the fourth row. The audience was asked to leave the venue & re-enter for the second half. My bride immediately got back in line as I went off to the bathroom. When I returned, we switched off. Unfortunately, as soon as she wandered off, the doors opened allowing us back in & I realized that she didn't have a ticket.. So, if I went in, she probably would not be able to follow me & would be stranded in the lobby. This show was completely sold out, so line position was important.. But, what could be done? Nothing. So, I gave up my place in the line and wandered over to the merch table. Robyn then turned up at the merch table, Sharpie marker in hand, ready to sign books and talk with fans. Happily, I'd bought my copy prior to 6:00pm, before there was a line. Now, unexpectedly out of line during the "intermission", as people were pouring back into the theater, I found myself third in line to have my book signed. I asked about Robyn's long rumoured novel "The Unbaby" & whether it would be published one day. His answer was "minus zero percent chance". He explained that no copies of the book existed - that they had all been destroyed.

With my book was signed and my question answered, my bride swiftly returned, and we got back into line to enter the theater. By the time we entered, probably at least 75% or more of the audience had returned .. and, yet, there were two seats in the middle of the third row, next to, but not included in, the Reserved Section, still very much empty. Honestly, it couldn't have worked better had I gone in at the very start - and I had a signed book as a bonus.

The show itself was wonderful, but oddly positioned. There was no stage, only a large open floor in front of theater seats. The lights were in the back, then a large space, then the seats. The band apparently didn't want to be so far back away from the audience, so the layout was a large lighted area, populated by the drummer, then a large unlighted area, populated by the rest of the band, then a few feet of unoccupied space, then the seats. In other words, the band was largely very close to the audience, but in the relative dark. I'm sure it was a choice - and, for me, an unexpected one.

The couple in the reserved seats next to us in the third row were among the parade of people who spent 10 minutes introducing one another during the "Conversation" portion. They either didn't notice or didn't care that I recorded the show. Either way, I was grateful.

I very much enjoyed the extended psychedelic version of "America". This was my first experience hearing anything from The Confuser played live - and they were all bangers. Because there had, for practical purposes, been an intermission between the two "shows", they didn't have another intermission during the music portion. They didn't even pretend to leave prior to the encores. They just pressed on through the whole thing. I didn't edit anything for time.

Robyn talked about how he typically wanders through the crowd with an acoustic guitar for the last song - but, for this show, he asked us to all meet him in the lobby. I don't think the lobby was big enough for everyone in the audience all at the same time.. and, by the time we got out there, the lobby was about half filled, so I think most people didn't stay. I wanted to get to the far side of the lobby, to make room for those still coming out of the theater behind us. It was another totally lucky decision, because when Robyn emerged, he stood about 3 feet from me. He didn't have an acoustic guitar, so he attempted to play an unamplified electric guitar, which, if you've ever heard that, isn't really a thing that can be heard. ... but, you can just about hear it in the recording. That's how close I was to him. After a while, he wandered away, then, for the last portion of the song, he wandered back, again standing perhaps 6 feet from me.

It was obvious that he genuinely wanted to reach, on a personal level, each & every person who was there that night. He wanted it to be a "Happening" - again, referencing the first half of the evening.

Scott F
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Online review and pictures by wheartm.com
Robyn Hitchcock- interview and performance at Lawrence Arts Center- Lawrence, KS (2026-06-26)

When being ‘The Confuser’ is a good thing-

UK-raised, Nashville-based singer, songwriter, and musical troubadour Robyn Hitchcock is still known as a lyrical surrealist and whose folk-based sound has moved from post-punk, to psychedelic, to alt-rock, to jangle pop and more, making him still hard to clearly define, as he seems to enjoy.

As part of the Free State Festival, the prolific Hitchcock made a stop downtown at the Lawrence Arts Center, in support of his upcoming album, The Confuser (out July 24 via Tiny Ghost Records) and also has a new book, Stranded in the Future, a second semi-fictionalized memoir that covers 1968 to 1978 and including the formation of The Soft Boys.

The evening got underway with a conversational interview with Hitchcock, but just after he took his seat, a call of “Is there a doctor in the house!?” came from near the top seats as an older man seemed to be slightly convulsing. A few tense moments later, all seemed ok and Hitchcock resumed by beginning with reading a passage from his first book, 1967: How I Got There and Why I Never Left, which described attending one of Brian Eno’s nearby art school “happenings” of the day and its effect on him.

Enough time was spent on the first memoir and related, along with several audience questions, that the newest book wasn’t discussed, so would just be left to the audience to discover it on their own.

In the Q+A, Hitchcock described the sometimes chaotic manner of composing a song (and conversely, the discovery of when something inexplicably falls into your lap), why he re-located to Nashville (it is ‘music city’ he said, but not necessarily just for Country), and when asked about newer artists to recommend, offered a few obscure bands like Scottish duo Boards of Canada (who have a new album, Inferno, but haven’t performed live in 25 years). When he asked the young questioner the same thing, New Zealand singer Lorde was offered back, though Hitchcock was unfamiliar with her work.

After almost an hour, it was time for an intermission that found Hitchcock in the lobby for a time, chatting with fans and signing books and music, while the band set up was being readied.

Patrons retook their seats and lights dimmed to see Hitchcock walking out alone with guitar to begin the musical performance, beginning with 1986’s “Raymond Chandler Evening”, a song from the era of his band The Egyptians, who lasted together a decade until 1994. The rest of the younger Tennessee-based group (drummer Eric Slick, bassist Todd Bolden, and guitarist Jeremy Fetzer) then joined Hitchcock on stage for a Soft Boys song from a few years prior, “Kingdom of Love.”

Hitchcock stayed chatty between songs, playing two Egyptians-era hits back-to-back, “Balloon Man” and “Madonna of the Wasps” which had the crowd roaring. Cheekily, he reminded everyone of the age gap between the band and himself, committing each of their late ‘80s birth dates to memory and relating the dates, reinforcing that so many of the songs performed, were originally made before any band member was even born (and he probably owns polka dot shirts older than his band mates).

While hearing Hitchcock solo can be revealing and intimate, Hitchcock with a band shows how good his songs are, more fully rounded out, and at a louder volume. That sound got even better as his wife and partner Emma Swift joined mid-set to add vocals and harmonies to several tracks, best highlighted on a medley of his “Flesh Number One (Beatle Dennis)” and the Roxy Music cover, “More Than This.”

The set was a balanced mix of older Soft Boys and Egyptians-era tracks, along with a few solo songs and several of the advance singles from the new album (which easily fit into his vast musical oeuvre), which he self-describes in classic Hitchcock-ian dry wit form, as an “ecstatic work of negativity with nary a dreary groove.”

Hitchcock’s voice retains his English elegance and has added a bit more texture over the decades, adding an additional authenticity and wisdom from decades of performing them.

The tail end of the set moved into cover songs of Hitchcock’s unabashed and greatest musical inspirations- The Beatles, (The) Pink Floyd, and The Velvet Underground. The set finale of “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” was a fresh reminder with this band’s version, of how masterfully The Beatles could build a song and sustain a groove.

Hitchcock then announced that, while he didn’t have an acoustic guitar with him, that he’d meet everyone in the building’s lobby, for one final sing-along and encore. A near-acapella version of “A Day in the Life” would end the evening, with the crowd becoming the co-vocalists for the song.

Remaining musically curious and somewhat eccentric, able to balance nostalgia and a freshness, and continuing to to be able to trod his own path and occupy his own unique category, Robyn Hitchcock remains one to see what he’ll do next. “The Confuser” can still amaze.