All-Star Daily News
October 16, 2000
Robyn Hitchcock & Grant-Lee Phillips Bring Songs & Laughs In Tour Opener
by Pat Berkery
Having arrived at Philadelphia's Theater Of The Living Arts with barely enough time to tune their guitars and scribble some song titles in Magic Marker on a paper plate, Grant-Lee Phillips and Robyn Hitchcock were totally in their element Friday (October 13) evening: under-rehearsed and flying by the seat of their pants on the opening date of their dual acoustic East Coast tour dubbed "Grant Lee Hitchcock".
As if to magnify the ramshackle nature of the evening, the venue was double-booked with the cookie-cutter Modern Rock troika of SR-71, Harvey Danger, and Wheatus later in the evening, forcing an early start time of 7 p.m. for Phillips and Hitchcock -- and an encore medley of David Bowie's "Sound And Vision" and "Ashes to Ashes", Dr. Hook's "When You're In Love With A Beautiful Woman", and Carl Douglas' "Kung Fu Fighting" performed sans amplification in a jam-packed lobby for 150 or so fans when the duo went over the allotted stage time.
Bringing the humorously informal spirit of Los Angeles singer-songwriter haven Largo (where Phillips and Hitchcock have teamedup in the past) to the East Coast, the duo's 75-minute set could have easily doubled as a workshop in bizarre improvisational storytelling with musical accompaniment.
Standing center-stage with acoustic guitars and a grand piano at their disposal, the lanky and rubbery Hitchcock and the comparatively diminutive Phillips managed to dwarf the menacing banks of Marshall amps and drum kits behind them with songs that plucked heart strings and raw nerves (Phillips' solo and Grant Lee Buffalo paeans to love lost, found, or hopelessly
unrequited) and tickled funny bones (Hitchcock's Punk Folk rave-ups that lampooned everything from ubiquitous thespians like Gene Hackman to the pomp and circumstance of Big Rock).
To introduce Hitchcock's classic ode to a female Elvis impersonator, "Queen Elvis", the pair traded barbs in dead-on Elvis-speak. Other dead rockers were fodder as well. Hitchcock quipped that deceased cult icon Nick Drake has "finally gone overground" thanks to Volkswagen's commercial use of his music before, performing the semi-poignant "I Saw Nick Drake" off his current Internet-only outtakes release, A Star For Bram.
While the banter, particularly Hitchcock's, got a bit long-winded at times (though lines like Phillips', "In Indian music, this is 75 percent of the show," while Hitchcock loudly tuned his guitar were priceless) there was always the music to keep things on track. The disparity in their voices -- Phillips' shifting from goosebump-inducing falsetto to leathery baritone;
Hitchcock's a heavily anglicized form of sing-speak -- was utilized to great effect. Both voices became one on Hitchcock's straight and sweet "I Feel Beautiful". And when Phillips' falsetto raced toward the heavens on Grant Lee Buffalo tunes like "Mockingbirds" and "Fuzzy", Hitchcock lent anchoring vocal and guitar support back here on earth.
Though they seem like strange bedfellows on paper, Phillips and Hitchcock proved that on the ol' wood-and-wire, their musical union makes perfect -- albeit somewhat off-kilter -- sense.
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