Robyn Hitchcock 2000-06-17
Coolidge Corner Moviehouse, Brookline, MA
Set 1
Silver Dagger
Nietzsche's Way
The Ghost In You
Question & Answer Session
Nightfall
Nietzsche's Way
The Ghost In You
Question & Answer Session
Nightfall
Set 2
Set 3
Comment
Robyn Hitchcock
Storefront Hitchcock area premiere
Coolidge Corner Moviehouse
Brookline, Massachusetts
USA
June 17, 2000 [2000-06-17]
While not strictly a 'secret' or a 'surprise' gig, this was certainly an out of the ordinary one. It was billed as a movie premiere, not as a performance. IIRC the only advertising for it (which is to say for Robyn Hitchcock's personal participation in it) was in the movietheatre's Coming Attractions display ad in the local weekly alternative newspaper. I'm glad I happened to spot it.
By the time of this 'premiere,' Storefront Hitchcock was already a full 2 years old. But few fans had seen it, due to spotty (or non-existent!) distribution [a situation ruefully referenced by RH in his introductory remarks here]. Nevertheless, fans were certainly aware of its existence. It was, after all, directed by Academy Award winner Jonathan Demme, whose Stop Making Sense had helped nudge The Talking Heads closer to the centre of the spotlight. Maybe this movie would do the same for Robyn Hitchcock? As anyone now reading this is well aware, that (for better or worse) didn't happen.
So in its planning and production stages there was hoopla about the movie (at least in the demi-monde of fandom), but the object of the hoopla never seemed to materialize. Its invisibility (a leitmotif in the RH oeuvre) had started to give it a patina of myth, like Lon Chaney's London After Midnight, or the Orson Welles director's cut of The Magnificent Ambersons, or the 9 hour version of Greed: celluloid you'd heard of but might be destined to never actually see.
When it finally did get its long overdue [Boston-] area premiere, the theatre was able to get RH (who had been in NY the 2 nights previous doing shows at The Bottom Line) to journey slightly northward for this opening night mini-event. Happily, rather than just giving a prefatory spiel and maybe taking some questions, he performed a few songs. Perhaps because this was such a one-off event (and certainly not wanting to perform anything that was going to be included in the filmed concert we would be watching next), he appears to have chosen songs outside his usual repertoire. Two of them (the first and last) would seem to fall into the category of rarities. Neither has ever been on an official RH release, and evidently neither is often performed live. (A fansite I consulted --- now sadly seemingly no longer updated --- lists only about a dozen known RH concert performances of the Joan Baez song, and c. half that number for the ISB.)
Storefront Hitchcock area premiere
Coolidge Corner Moviehouse
Brookline, Massachusetts
USA
June 17, 2000 [2000-06-17]
While not strictly a 'secret' or a 'surprise' gig, this was certainly an out of the ordinary one. It was billed as a movie premiere, not as a performance. IIRC the only advertising for it (which is to say for Robyn Hitchcock's personal participation in it) was in the movietheatre's Coming Attractions display ad in the local weekly alternative newspaper. I'm glad I happened to spot it.
By the time of this 'premiere,' Storefront Hitchcock was already a full 2 years old. But few fans had seen it, due to spotty (or non-existent!) distribution [a situation ruefully referenced by RH in his introductory remarks here]. Nevertheless, fans were certainly aware of its existence. It was, after all, directed by Academy Award winner Jonathan Demme, whose Stop Making Sense had helped nudge The Talking Heads closer to the centre of the spotlight. Maybe this movie would do the same for Robyn Hitchcock? As anyone now reading this is well aware, that (for better or worse) didn't happen.
So in its planning and production stages there was hoopla about the movie (at least in the demi-monde of fandom), but the object of the hoopla never seemed to materialize. Its invisibility (a leitmotif in the RH oeuvre) had started to give it a patina of myth, like Lon Chaney's London After Midnight, or the Orson Welles director's cut of The Magnificent Ambersons, or the 9 hour version of Greed: celluloid you'd heard of but might be destined to never actually see.
When it finally did get its long overdue [Boston-] area premiere, the theatre was able to get RH (who had been in NY the 2 nights previous doing shows at The Bottom Line) to journey slightly northward for this opening night mini-event. Happily, rather than just giving a prefatory spiel and maybe taking some questions, he performed a few songs. Perhaps because this was such a one-off event (and certainly not wanting to perform anything that was going to be included in the filmed concert we would be watching next), he appears to have chosen songs outside his usual repertoire. Two of them (the first and last) would seem to fall into the category of rarities. Neither has ever been on an official RH release, and evidently neither is often performed live. (A fansite I consulted --- now sadly seemingly no longer updated --- lists only about a dozen known RH concert performances of the Joan Baez song, and c. half that number for the ISB.)
Sources
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Created At
Sat Aug 11 2018 21:22:31 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Updated At
Sat Jun 16 2018 14:44:30 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
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