What has been said about Robyn Hitchcock that hasn’t already been said?  That’s probably already been said.

“Did you ever hover in the distance?/ Did you ever swoop down from the sky?/By the bright green rocks all draped with seaweed/ By the deep blue ocean rolling by?”

The is a quote from his song “Oceanside” which I was very disappointed he did not play (I guess it’s not possible to play your entire career in one night).  It does, however, serve as a great intro for the uninitiated.  For those who have never heard of (let alone heard) Robyn Hitchcock, let’s put it this way . . .  If the Beatles and the Byrds got together to form a group and decided to sing Salvador Dali paintings in the style of Syd Barrett, Robyn Hitchcock would be the result.

This was my fourth time seeing him and I can honestly say no two shows are alike.  He approaches each song differently every time (even slightly alter the lyrics) and have a completely different setlist.  This show ranks as my second favourite (second to the time I saw him in Detroit with the Egyptians, of course).  One thing I liked was that he played a ton of songs he normally doesn’t play (to my knowledge) and one would not expect at an acoustic show.  Many times he would either introduce or start a song and I would be thinking, “Now how’s he going to pull this one off?”  But Robyn does Magnificently (capitalized for a reason).  Though he has been performing primarily acoustic for many years, he played a lot of songs one would think would stay electric.  Prime examples:  “Adventure Rocketship,” “Bass,” “Airscape,” “Only the Stones Remain” and my favourite, “I’m Only You.”

“I’m Only You” was the highlight of the evening for me.  I could have fallen over from shock when he introduced it.  For those unfamiliar the song features some very different guitar sounds and a very choppy (yet flowing?) psychedelic ending.  After introducing the song he asked the guy behind the sound board, “Do you have delay?”

Sound: Yes

Robyn: Do you have digital delay?

Sound: Yes

Robyn: Do you have Stereo Digital Delay?

Sound: Yes

Robyn : Do you have stereo  digital delay that you can pan to all corners of the room?

Sound: Yes

After trying the man’s patience  a little more, Robyn then in instructed said sound guy that he wanted him to pay attention to the rhythm and guess the settings based on that and pan the delay randomly all around the room.  He said the at one point he would count to five and on five he should turn on the delay and “pray that this actually works.”  To mine and everyone else’s amazement, it actually did!