Well it's been five years since I saw the Soft Boys in secret in London (I reviewed it here), and happily I am now more familiar with Robyn Hitchcock's recordings than I was back then. That knowledge doesn't quite stretch to his releases with the Minus 3/ Venus 3 line-up, though I did enjoy the tracks that they recorded for Andy Kershaw last year.
This incarnation is the Venus 3, and they consist of three members of the touring REM line-up, namely Scott McCaughan (ex-Young Fresh Fellows), Bill Rieflin (ex-Ministry and Revolting Cocks) and THE Peter Buck. However, this is definitely a Robyn Hitchcock show and although a lot of people may be here to see the backing band, they are definitely HIS backing band, here to play a lot of his back catalogue plus their fine recent album 'Olé! Tarantula'.
The opening track of that album opens the set, 'Adventure Rocket Ship', a hugely confident slice of jangling indie-rock which sets the tone for the next 90 minutes. The band all seem at home on the small stage and Hitchcock is his usually witty self, introducing a lot of the tunes with long rambling humourous monologues which often have little to do with the song they prelude. The exception to this is '(A Man's Got to Know His Limitations) Briggs' which is about the movie Magnum Force, and does benefit from Robyn's polt summary beforehand!
Obviously they played a lot from the recent album but long-standing Hitchcock fans weren't disappointed either. I'm not great with titles but from the back catalogue we got 'Vibrating', 'Flesh No1', 'Madonna of the Wasps' and for the Soft Boys fans we got a very faithful version of 'Queen of Eyes'. In fact this Venus 3 project hints more towards the Soft Boys than any of Hitchcock other acts, as if to underline this 'Give it to the Soft Boys' is the last encore! They also encore with a lovely cover of Dylan's 'Not Dark Yet' which I almost thought was going to turn into Venus in Furs at one point.
Robyn charmed us, made us laugh and played some great music, and the REM guys hung around afterwards, met the crowd and posed for photos with anyone that wanted. A great night really.
No comments:
Post a Comment