Concert Review: Robyn Hitchcock (Cat's Cradle)

BY DREW DRAIN

Emma Swift opened the evening and immediately made the room feel comfortable. Her songs were wonderful, but honestly, her stories were just as entertaining. At one point she talked about leaving Australia for Nashville after falling in love with American country music. As a kid, she was obsessed with Tammy Wynette and George Jones and figured that if she moved to Tennessee, she'd eventually find herself a cowboy. Instead, she found Robyn Hitchcock; however, he is about as far from a cowboy as you can get. She used the story to explain her accent, which has evolved into this fascinating mix of Australian, Nashville country, and just a little posh British influence sprinkled on top. Her set felt personal, funny, and completely engaging. She's one of those performers who can hold a room's attention without ever seeming like she's working for it.

After a short break, Hitchcock took the stage and reminded everyone why there really isn't anyone else quite like him. Plenty of artists develop a recognizable style over the years. Hitchcock seems to have built an entire world of his own. His songs wander through folk, psychedelia, pop, and whatever strange corner of his imagination happens to be open that night. Almost as entertaining as the music was everything that happened between the songs. Hitchcock's stage banter doesn't exactly follow a straight line, but that's part of the appeal. He'll disappear down some wonderfully absurd tangent, have the audience laughing, and then suddenly deliver a song that hits with surprising emotional weight.

One of the most impressive things is how comfortably he moves through a catalog that stretches back nearly fifty years. The set pulled from every era of his career, touching on Soft Boys classics, Egyptians favorites, and solo material without ever feeling like a nostalgia act. Songs such as "Queen of Eyes," "So You Think You're in Love," and "I Wanna Destroy You" still sounded vibrant rather than preserved behind museum glass. Despite being written in the fall of 1979, the questions of is hatred contagious and can you fight fascism with love in "I Wanna Destroy You," are still relevant today. Robyn has written about it on his Substack far better than I ever could. Once you're finished reading this review, head on over there to check it out.

Musically, the show felt less like a greatest-hits set and more like a guided tour through Hitchcock's influences and obsessions. Alongside his own songs, he sprinkled in unexpected covers, drawing from his influences like The Velvet Underground, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, and The Beatles. Rather than feeling like detours, those songs fit naturally into the peculiar musical universe he's been creating for decades.

The moment I'll remember most came at the tail end of the show. Hitchcock stepped off the stage and into the crowd carrying nothing but his acoustic guitar. No microphone. No spotlight. No production. Just him and the audience. Standing in the middle of the room, he started playing "A Day in the Life," which happens to be one of my favorite Beatles' songs. People started singing along immediately. It was just a room full of people singing one of the greatest songs ever written. The lack of amplification somehow made it even more powerful.

Emma Swift's songs and stories set the perfect tone, and Hitchcock delivered exactly what longtime fans hoped to get for the night, which was great music, oddball humor, and a few moments that could only happen in a live room.

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DREW DRAIN

Andrew (Drew) Drain is originally from Point Pleasant, WV, and he now resides in Chapel Hill, NC with his daughter. Drew works as a financial risk management professional to pay the bills, but his real passion is photography. He started taking photos of his daughter playing soccer as a way to resist the urge to coach her from the sidelines. Time behind the camera developed into a love for photography that he has paired with his love for sports and live music. Follow Drew’s Instagram, @Drew.Drain.Photo or his MaxPreps galleries, to check out more of his work or contact him if you need photos of your favorite athlete or performer.

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