The Washington Post
April 3, 1995
Robyn Hitchcock, Basically Unplugged
by Mark Jenkins
That Robyn Hitchcock has yet to achieve mainstream success is indicated by the fact that he's touring to promote not a new album -- he hasn't released one in two years -- but reissues of nine discs of '80s material. Still, the English singer-songwriter is much loved in Washington, and at the 9:30 club on Wednesday (the second of two nights there) he was greeted rapturously by an audience that demanded two sets of encores.
Hitchcock is most effective when playing with The Egyptians, his versatile backing duo, but acquitted himself well accompanied only by his own guitar (and, on some songs, Deni Bonet's violin). Though he mostly played acoustic guitar, he didn't restrict himself merely to almost-Folk-y ballads like "Arms of Love". He also managed to perform such elaborate production numbers as "Driving Aloud (Radio Storm)" and "The Yip Song" -- the latter "about death from cancer," he explained -- and rockers such as "So You Think You're In Love" and "Only The Stones Remain". The latter, originally recorded by Hitchcock's Soft Boys, was outfitted with an electric guitar intro that could hardly have been less Folk-y.
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