Review: Robyn Hitchcock at The Grey Eagle
In describing his musical approach, Robyn Hitchcock once said in an interview, “You could view my career as a love letter to Dylan and The Beatles or a postscript to Dylan and The Beatles.”
The two giants serve as twin poles of Hitchcock’s musical expression. Performing solo at The Grey Eagle in Asheville on April 16, Hitchcock demonstrated this method and the breadth of his work, as well as his characteristic wit, charm, and singular viewpoint through his songs and onstage commentary.
Eight years since his last Asheville concert, Hitchcock said that most of the song selection came by request via various social media platforms. The setlist pulled from all corners of his career, including some of his best known solo work. “Queen Elvis” and "I Often Dream of Trains” were represented, as were “Queen of Eyes” and “I Want to Destroy You” from his time with The Soft Boys, plus tunes from his latest album, Shufflemania!.
Regardless of the era the songs came from, Hitchcock transformed the poppy Beatles-like material into Dylan-esque tales. For example, Hitchcock’s rendition of “Shuffleman” from Shufflemania! sounded as if it was a lost acoustic demo of a Dylan rocker uncovered for a Bootleg Series release. Similarly, Hitchcock’s original 1989 version of “Madonna of the Wasps” with The Egyptians is prototypical, jangly Beatles pop music. Performed as a solo acoustic number in Asheville, it could have been mistaken for a 1966 bootleg hotel room recording of Dylan.
The night also demonstrated Hitchcock’s mastery of the guitar, even within the framework of a solo, acoustic performance. Hitchcock has never had the reputation of a shredder or been ranked on Guitar Player magazine lists, but he deserves more recognition for his guitar work, which not only supports the song, but elevates it.
All this is to say, he can be a shit-hot player in any style when needed. The night’s version of “I’m Only You” featured a guitar solo coda with raga-like sound, complete with trippy, echoing effects that garnered howls of approval from the crowd.
The biggest takeaway from the Grey Eagle performance was how much laughter was involved. Hitchcock’s hilarious between-song banter uplifted the inherent wit in his songs — the black comedy noir “My Wife and My Dead Wife,” for example — into outright gags. And his instructions to the sound guy Daniel turned the venue’s employee into an unseen straight man.
At one point, Hitchcock asked the crowd to consider buying from his “ill-judged assortment of goods” in the lobby. And commenting on his own songs conjured several bon mots, such as “The power as always lives in the darkness.” Other times, Eric Idle-type riffs led to such images as “fused Tootsie Roll necklaces” and a business called the “Salamander Corporation,” in which one can't tell what's an executive or a corridor.
These musings could have been details from an unreleased Robyn Hitchcock song. To be honest, it was impossible to keep up with note-taking throughout these bizarre and outlandish trains of thought, since they moved through life and consciousness at exhilarating speed, leaving the crowd gasping for laughter.
While using the restroom at the break, another patron told the group using the facility that the person seated next to him felt that Hitchcock was surely on mushrooms and asked us our opinion. No one answered because, well, we were in the bathroom. But mind-altering drugs are redundant and beside the point when considering Robyn Hitchcock.
No one else has the same cleverly penetrating perspective on this world as he does. When armed with his particular command of language and the view on the absurd, there is nothing to compare to a Robyn Hitchcock song. Or, as in Asheville on this April night, there is nothing like a Robyn Hitchcock performance.
(Photo by Emma Swift)
