Concert Review: Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3, Granada Theater, Dallas, Texas, 4/4/09

Addressing the crowd for the first time in the evening, Robyn Hitchcock announced that he would be playing “all old songs, or songs that sound like they are old.” Playing to a mostly older crowd, with a band (the Venus 3) made up of veteran musicians, including Peter Buck (REM), Scott McCaughey (The Young Fresh Fellows, The Minus 5) and Bill Rieflin (formerly of Ministry), it would have been easy for the show to slip into nostalgia, like one of those Vegas-and-State-Fair acts composed of one surviving member of a Motown band, plus others. Perhaps partly because Hitchcock’s music can’t be pegged to any one time period—it’s equal parts ’60s British Invasion psychedelia, ’80s new wave and a guitar-driven surrealism that sounds timeless—nothing about the show seemed dated. Instead, the show was vibrant, energetic and satisfying, though it could have been longer and I wouldn’t have complained.

The Granada Theater, a former movie theater turned concert venue on Dallas’s Greenville Avenue, provided a very nice setting. A mostly older crowd filed in to the mostly reserved seating just before show time. At thirty-seven, I was among the younger people in attendance. Most of the first row and the seats to my left were taken up by a very nice collection of internet-friends who met on the REM fan website Murmurs and were happy to see 3/5 of their favorite band play, though not all of them were Hitchcock fans.

The opening act was both unbilled and unnamed, but pretty great. Brent Best (formerly of Slobberbone), Scott Danbom (Centro-Matic) and Joe Cripps, a percussionist who’s played with a number of Dallas/Denton bands, appeared on stage together and played a short set. All three have played with each other before, most recently with Centro-Matic side project South San Gabriel. Most of the songs seemed to be Best songs and followed the typical themes of those familiar with his work: drinking, destitution and dysfunction. A couple of the standouts from their set included Slobberbone’s “(I Can Tell) Your Love is Waning” and Best’s “It’s a Wondrous Life.” Best played an acoustic guitar and harmonica, Danbom alternated between keyboards and violin, and Cripps did a fantastic job of providing rhythm on a percussion set made of two bongos, a kettle drum, a tambourine and a single crash cymbal. On “The Pinball Song,” Cripps impressed on the spoons.

When Hitchcock and his band took the stage, they wasted no time getting things going. Robyn Hitchcock has always considered himself a child of the Sixties, and recently told Wired.com that the other members of the Venus 3 “were touched by punk rock where it didn’t touch me.” Still, over his career, Hitchcock has alternated between very quiet, introspective solo work and frenetic, loud fast rock and roll that could easily be mistaken for punk—see, for example, the live demos on the re-issued Soft Boys albums, or the manic early Egyptians live album, Gotta Let this Hen Out—this show was squarely in the later category.

Perhaps the main thing that separates Hitchcock from punk is a well-practiced musicianship; he gets far less credit as a guitarist than he deserves. During a mind-bending intro to “Madonna of the Wasps,” he played a solo unlike anything I’ve ever heard. Other highlights of the evening included “Flesh Number One” and “Somewhere Apart.” In between songs, Hitchcock included some spoken-word intros, though he wasn’t as loquacious as he sometimes can be. Here’s his intro to the always-great “Airscape” (probably one of my top ten favorite songs by any artist):

Hitchcock played four songs from his new album, Goodnight Oslo, including the song “Up to Our Nex,” featured in the Jonathan Demme movie “Rachel Getting Married.” “Television” a song from one of his more recent solo albums, got a nice update, with McCaughey and Reiflin joining Hitchcock to provide three-part harmonies. Hitchcock introduced it as a song about “one of the most powerful drugs known to human society.” He also performed “NY Doll,” a song based on the movie of the same name about Arthur “Killer” Kane, giving the movie a strong endorsement beforehand.

After the show, Hitchcock and Peter Buck hung around to sign merch and chat with fans. Both seemed like very decent people and like they were doing what they enjoy because they enjoy it. The crowd seem to appreciate it. I know I did.

The entire set list is listed below.

I Often Dream of Trains
What You Is
Out of the Picture
Saturday Groovers
Airscape
NY Doll
Television
Flesh Number One (Beatle Dennis)
Somewhere Apart
Creeped Out
I’m Falling
Maddona of the Wasps
Up to Our Nex
Beautiful Queen
The Authority Box
————–
The Lizard
Kingdom of Love
Goodnight Oslo