(continued from "Atlanta '99")

Eddie and I woke up around 8:30am or so, grabbed some bad "continental" breakfast at the hotel lounge, then hit the road, quickly getting split up once we dumped onto I-85. It's about a 4 hour drive up to Charlotte, home of the illustrious Dede Davis.

The second rest stop after you cross into South Carolina on I-85 is heaven. It's on a small wooded hill that slopes down to this quiet restful lake. I pulled off and sat for about an hour strumming my guitar and just not thinking about anything. Real bliss.

Anyway, I met back up with Eddie at Dede's place. Dede's a very nice gal with great taste in music and a real Connells groupie! She took us down to a little veggie eatery/club called Fat City and I had a tremendously scruptious bowl of black eyed pea salad! Eddie stuck to the falafel. We strolled through a nearby art room and just hung about until early evening.

We made the 2 hour plus drive up to Carrboro/Chapel Hill, arriving around 9:15 or so. The show was running late; we found out later that Olivia Tremor Control had called to say they were running really late, so the schedule became Tim first, then Robyn, then OTC. Robyn actually didn't finish up until after 1am, with OTC taking the stage at 2am.

Anyway, the Cat's Cradle was a nice little dive of a club. Eddie and I snagged some Robyn flyers and JfS flats. I bumped into Scott Spillane and got his autograph on my NMH disc.

Robyn again introduced Tim Keegan and Depart Lounge, who put on another stellar performance. I repeat...don't miss these guys. Basically the same set as the night before in Atlanta.

Robyn strolled out for his turn, wearing the same green/purple flower pants and black shirt. He did a lot more sitting down at this show, except for a 6 or 7 song electric stint. About halfway through the show, his pickup in his acoustic guitar gave out on him and he had to make do with the electric blue Fender the rest of the night. My personal opinion is that they were much tighter as a band this night as opposed to Atlanta. I assume they'll just keep getting better and better!

As everyone has been saying, Kimberley is a real treat to watch. Spazzy mouth movements, rocking head and gray hear...very much more animated than Robyn, whose more stoic (except for the blinking and flipping of hair).

One item of note: someone was videoing the Atlanta show, and Robyn's only comment was that it would be more interesting if they got different angles, maybe passing the camera through the crowd. However, at Carrboro, Robyn was visibly annoyed at one person taking a few snapshots from the front of the stage and asked them to put the camera away. Guess it depends on the night how he'll be with that...

Also: Eddie got snagged by Robyn's tour manager and Cat's Cradle "security" while taping the Departure Lounge set. After some talk and Robyn's tour manager going back to check with Robyn, Eddie was given the A-OK to tape. After these first few stumbling gigs, taping should be easier for everyone with no hassles. I later spoke with the tour manager, who is really nice...gave me his card. I bought one of the puke-green shirts (which is somewhat hideous once I put it on...hopefully Eddie will snag me a more normal purple one soon) and a Tim Keegan CD. Tim, Jake and Lindsay were hanging out by the door so I went up and got their autographs and we talked at length about the tour, the movie (Tim was very happy that I'd seen it and said he was really happy with it and that it would probably become a cult thing). Eddie strolled up and Tim and the gang found out he'd be stalking them for the rest of the tour. A great group of guys, very laid back and accessible...if anyone has the urge to go up and say hello, do it.

I happen to really like the CD and have played it to death over the last few days. Kinda mellow and simple and warm. Buy it!



Greetings Fegs,

Sorry for the tardy report on the Carrboro show. I wanted to take my time with it, but here it is.

We (Matt and Rachael) showed up about an hour after the doors opened hoping to see at least some of the Olivia Tremor Control. As it turned out, the doors were not open and someone said something about the band still being in Charlotte (at least 2 hrs away). But I guess they had left Charlotte soon enough, and the doors opened about 1.5 hours late. It caused the schedule to change, such that Tim Keegan and RH opened for Olivia Tremor Control. Unfortunately, when Robyn did finally leave the stage about 10 to 1, most of the crowd including myself left too. I have one of their CDs (Dust from Cubist Castle or something like that). They play nice psychy-pop stuff and can also play long drony/ambient music as well.

Cat's Cradle is a typical concert bar hall. Lacks the sort of intimacy which I've grown accustomed to seeing Robyn solo the last many times. We opted to sit on a raised platform towards the back, rather than stand in front. It sounded nice, despite the obviously quick sound check necessary to start the show in the first place.

We really enjoyed the mellowness of the Departure Lounge. Had never heard them before, and I may be inclined to pick up their CD sometime. Robyn wandered around the Cat's Cradle for a little during their set, wearing bright green scrubs, like he just came from surgery, (or had some himself?). Interestingly, when he did appear on the stage for himself, the green pants had grown purple flowers all over them. He was looking quite a bit more gray than the last time we saw him, geez, about 2 years ago in Rochester, NY. However, the energy level was higher, as someone mentioned from the Austin report last week. Wish I could say the same.

He started alone with Mexican God (sitting- still had sore back). It was great. Played another song or two alone before Tim Keegan joined him. For the encore, he again started solo and then Kimberley Rew joined him. Kimberly was by far the highlight of the whole show for me besides just seeing Robin with other musicians, which I haven't seen in a while. I had never seen Kimberley Rew before. Although I saw a few Egyptians shows 10 years ago, I realize now what Kimberley really brought to the soft boys. He was so entertaining, shaking that Gibson until every note dripped on the floor. He seemed to try and get more emotion out of the other guys playing, who although they played very nicely, didn't respond too much.

The musical highlight had to be the version of I Often Dream of Trains with Robyn and Kimberley. Robyn played the song perfectly, while Kimberley played on top of it with pseudorhythm / distortion and it seemed like whatever just oozed from his fingers. Boy I wish I had seen the Soft Boys! (Eventually Robyn did stand when the rest of the boys joined him on stage, and his torso did not dismantle, as he warned those in front).

Let's see, what else did they play. Lots from the new album, Antwoman was my favorite. Jewels was nice, but I still couldn't get into Viva Seatac, its just not Hitchcock enough for me. Oh well. They did a great version of Oceanside in the encore, never liked that song as much as I did watching it. They also played Queen of Eyes, which was great to watch Kimberley jam on. I thought it lacked the psych-punkness and energy as a result of 20 years aging. Oh, and Queen Elvis was another great one (w/ Keegan) - those two played very nice stuff together. Other songs include : Madonna of the Wasps, Sally was a Legend, the guitar-solo-interlude-thing from Eye (Ghost Ship?-sorry), Birds in Perspex, Beautiful Girl (solo), Beautiful Queen too, and a couple others from the new album which I don't know well enough yet. The Cheese Song was one.

I read the report from Austin and Baltimore (before and after the Carboro gig) and am sad we missed Insanely Jealous. I sang that song to my girlfriend in college. 3 years later she married me. Also on the personal front, my wife Rachael who is 3.5 months pregnant, was quite proud of the fact when she realized the last time we saw Robyn, she was pregnant with our first child! In-utero exposure - gotta love it. At least now we can say we haven't (yet) played favorites for the first-born. (Although I can't remember the order of everything he's heard since)

Sorry for the long message. It's my first, and unless I see RH soon again, probably my will be my longest. It was awesome to see Robyn rockin again. Long live....

Cheers,
Matt and Rachael