Who: Robyn Hitchcock
What: Live concert with full band
Where: Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey St. between Bowery & Chrystie St., 212-260-4700
When: Saturday, April 1, $25, 8:00
Why: Throughout a long career that has included leading the Soft Boys, the Egyptians, and the Venus 3 in addition to extensive solo work, Paddington-born singer-songwriter and raconteur Robyn Hitchcock has regaled concertgoers with hilarious stories about the music business and wry views on the human condition while putting out a bevy of terrific albums and memorable songs. During the pandemic, Hitchcock took to Facebook in a big way, posting memories, promoting new material, and suddenly going live, playing short, impromptu online gigs from his hotel room or at home. On the Mandolin streaming platform, which lets performers get paid by fans, Hitchcock has also been performing longer living room concerts, known as “Live from Tubby’s House,” named after one of his beloved Scottish Fold cats, Tubby Vincent, who often makes an appearance, along with Ringo M. Stardust the cat, Perry the lobster, and Hitchcock’s partner, fellow singer-songwriter Emma Swift.
Emma Swift and Robyn Hitchcock are psyched to be back out on the road and not just dreaming of trains (photo by Kelley Stolz)
But live audiences are irreplaceable, and Hitchcock is beyond thrilled to be touring again, traveling the world in support of his latest record, the fabulous Shufflemania! (Tiny Ghost Records, October 2022), and sharing his journey every day on Facebook. The album is a jangly mélange of pure pop psychedelia, highlighted by such songs as “The Shuffle Man,” “Socrates in Thin Air,” “The Sir Tommy Shovell,” and “The Raging Muse.” Hitchcock explains on Bandcamp, “What is Shufflemania!? It’s surfing fate, trusting your intuition, and bullfighting with destiny. It’s embracing the random and dancing with it, even when it needs to clean its teeth. It’s probably the most consistent album I’ve made. It’s a party record, with a few solemn moments, as parties are wont to supply. Groove on, groovers!” (On April 23, Hitchcock will release the all-instrumental Life After Infinity, boasting such titles as “Plesiosaurs in the Desert,” “Tubby Among the Nightingales,” and “Mr Ringerson’s Picnic.”)
On the tour, he has played solo acoustic and electric and with different band configurations depending on where he is and which friends of his are available; on April 1, he was supposed to be joined by Kelley Stolz and Bart Davenport at Bowery Ballroom, but they both have just contracted Covid. Instead, he’ll be accompanied by Kurt Bloch (Fastbacks, the Young Fresh Fellows) on guitar, Julia Rydholm (Ladybug Transistor, Essex Green) on bass, and Patrick Berkery (the War on Drugs, the Pernice Brothers) on drums, promising that “the show will start quietly and finish loud. . . . We’ll condense forty-five years of music into ninety minutes as best we can.” In addition to Hitchcock gems, be on the lookout for witty repartee and classic covers, from Dylan, the Beatles, the Psychedelic Furs, and unexpected surprises, especially because it will be April Fools’ Day.