Robyn Hitchcock - as British as ever
Please welcome Jack “Hoboken Jack” Silbert as our guest writer!
Robyn Hitchcock / White Eagle Hall / Jersey City, NJ / April 23, 2024
Prior to the show, a young bartender told me he wasn’t familiar with Robyn Hitchcock. “You’ll like him,” I ventured. “British, very funny, very weird — he’ll go off on strange tangents between songs. A terrific, melodic songwriter. He has white hair, which used to be black.” Though I didn’t get to check back with the bartender later, I feel I represented the evening quite accurately. Indeed, it was a classic Hitchcock solo performance in every regard.
Armed only with his acoustic guitar, a harmonica, a cup of tea, and a glass of water, Hitchcock took the stage in front of the seated crowd (of approximately 400 people) at the grand old hall. The beverages made me wonder if Hitchcock was nursing a sore throat, but he was in fine voice throughout what amounted to a greatest-hits set: “Balloon Man,” “So You Think You’re in Love,” “Queen of Eyes,” “I Wanna Destroy You,” etc. etc. He fine-tuned the audio-visuals for many songs by issuing whimsical, occasionally cryptic instructions to his unseen sound and light engineers (Sam and Annie) in the back of the hall.
Nestled within his between-song flights of fancy and philosophical musings, Hitchcock betrayed a sweet nostalgia for New Jersey, specifically Hoboken’s legendary club Maxwell’s (which shuttered in 2013). He twice referred to the Soft Boys playing there in 1980, and also gave a shout-out to attendees Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley of Hoboken’s own Yo La Tengo. Over the years, I was lucky to be at Maxwell’s for three Robyn Hitchcock solo shows and one by the reunited Soft Boys. Ah, now I’m getting all nostalgic too, and I imagine most of the predominantly older White Eagle crowd were doing the same. Thankfully, Robyn Hitchcock himself remains as vital as ever.
Jack Silbert
