Robyn & Emma's house
Details
- Date
- April 15, 2020
- Venue
- Robyn & Emma's house Nashville, Tennessee
- Billed As
- Robyn Hitchcock & Emma Swift
- Gig Type
- Online
Set List
- Sometimes A Blonde
- Nietzsche's Way
- Airscape
- Satellite Robyn solo
- Rocky Raccoon The Beatles
- The Ghost in You The Psychedelic Furs
- Mad Shelley's Letterbox
- Queen of Eyes
- Glass Hotel
Media
Audio recording of performance
Reviews
Review by Steve McGowan from Zub Records
So, I’m now at the point where I really look forward to Robyn & Em’s streaming shows. After last week's Bob Dylan show, they were back on a regular Hitchcock themed show. The platform is StageIt (www.stageit.com) and the streaming was lo-res but not so bad tonight. They opened with Reg saying “I hope you are utterly zen’d out” and they launched into ‘Sometimes A Blonde’ from Spooked. It appears that Robyn and Em have spent some of their downtime rehearsing, as their voices sounded super together.
Next up was ‘Nietzsche’s Way’ from A Star For Bram, sort of a take on Spirits’ ‘Nature's Way.’ Robyn flubbed a word and started giggling. He dedicated the next song, ‘Airscape,’ (from Element Of Light) to Soft Boy/ Hitchcock Solo/ Thomas Dolby bass player Matthew Seiligman, who was in an induced coma due to the COVID-19 virus. They stopped for tuning issues but Reg said he was just “hitting some bad notes.” He called Emma “E. Smith,” leading to a bit of a kerfuffle. Once they did ‘Airscape,’ though, all was forgiven, a truly beautiful song with Emma nailing the high notes.
Emma went off to find a cat, and Robyn solo played ‘Satellite,’ from EYE, and the feed went dead for about 30 seconds. When they came back, Reg was still playing and Emma apologised profusely. Perhaps someone tripped over something. Introducing the next song, they mentioned the next show would be an all-Beatles cover show. Can’t wait for that! Robyn played Emma’s request as a teaser, a surprisingly good cover of ‘Rocky Racoon’ from The Beatles’ White Album. Emma brought the bag of cat treats to lure Tubby and Ringo, Perry the stuffed lobster made a cameo, and it was already encore time.
The duo did a great cover of The Psychedelic Furs ‘The Ghost In You,’ a song that sounds like Reg wrote it. Then Tubby (one of their two Scottish fold cats, Tubby the one with one eye and a Twitter account @asktubby) was scooped up for an appearance. “Tubby the Aviator” was given a delicious shrimpy snack. Next up was ‘Mad Shelley's Letterbox’ from Robyn’s excellent self-titled new record (the purple cover with Reg holding a cat). Robyn sang the first 20 seconds in his Richard Butler voice, which was pretty funny.
They ended up with ‘The Queen Of Eyes,’ a Soft Boys song from Underwater Moonlight. Reg saying “I can’t believe I wrote this.” And finished up with the devastatingly wonderful ‘Glass Hotel,’ from EYE. Robyn’s voice is still strong and powerful, and Emma’s the perfect foil. Another uplifting, terrific performance from these two. Can’t wait to hear The Beatles show!
---Steve McGowan
So, I’m now at the point where I really look forward to Robyn & Em’s streaming shows. After last week's Bob Dylan show, they were back on a regular Hitchcock themed show. The platform is StageIt (www.stageit.com) and the streaming was lo-res but not so bad tonight. They opened with Reg saying “I hope you are utterly zen’d out” and they launched into ‘Sometimes A Blonde’ from Spooked. It appears that Robyn and Em have spent some of their downtime rehearsing, as their voices sounded super together.
Next up was ‘Nietzsche’s Way’ from A Star For Bram, sort of a take on Spirits’ ‘Nature's Way.’ Robyn flubbed a word and started giggling. He dedicated the next song, ‘Airscape,’ (from Element Of Light) to Soft Boy/ Hitchcock Solo/ Thomas Dolby bass player Matthew Seiligman, who was in an induced coma due to the COVID-19 virus. They stopped for tuning issues but Reg said he was just “hitting some bad notes.” He called Emma “E. Smith,” leading to a bit of a kerfuffle. Once they did ‘Airscape,’ though, all was forgiven, a truly beautiful song with Emma nailing the high notes.
Emma went off to find a cat, and Robyn solo played ‘Satellite,’ from EYE, and the feed went dead for about 30 seconds. When they came back, Reg was still playing and Emma apologised profusely. Perhaps someone tripped over something. Introducing the next song, they mentioned the next show would be an all-Beatles cover show. Can’t wait for that! Robyn played Emma’s request as a teaser, a surprisingly good cover of ‘Rocky Racoon’ from The Beatles’ White Album. Emma brought the bag of cat treats to lure Tubby and Ringo, Perry the stuffed lobster made a cameo, and it was already encore time.
The duo did a great cover of The Psychedelic Furs ‘The Ghost In You,’ a song that sounds like Reg wrote it. Then Tubby (one of their two Scottish fold cats, Tubby the one with one eye and a Twitter account @asktubby) was scooped up for an appearance. “Tubby the Aviator” was given a delicious shrimpy snack. Next up was ‘Mad Shelley's Letterbox’ from Robyn’s excellent self-titled new record (the purple cover with Reg holding a cat). Robyn sang the first 20 seconds in his Richard Butler voice, which was pretty funny.
They ended up with ‘The Queen Of Eyes,’ a Soft Boys song from Underwater Moonlight. Reg saying “I can’t believe I wrote this.” And finished up with the devastatingly wonderful ‘Glass Hotel,’ from EYE. Robyn’s voice is still strong and powerful, and Emma’s the perfect foil. Another uplifting, terrific performance from these two. Can’t wait to hear The Beatles show!
---Steve McGowan