Edinbrugh Evening News
August 26, 2000
Integrity And Talent Make Hitchcock The Ultimate Fringe Act
Robyn Hitchcock
Scottish International at Dynamic Earth
****
by Simon McKenzie
Robyn Hitchcock is, in many ways, the ultimate fringe act: his reputation precedes him, he is able to draw an audience, and he is able to impress those who are seeing him for the first time. Yet at no point is there any attempt to court mainstream acceptance.
This man and his music are unique in any experience, and he is not about to dilute his bizarre worldview for the curious.
He begins with an elaborate story built around the presence of a traffic cone ("floor cleaning in progress" is emblazoned across its front) and it quickly becomes a monologue on the mannerisms of customs inspectors and the fate of the dogs the Soviets sent into orbit in the early days of the space race.
Before you know it, ten minutes are gone (and he has yet to play a song).
Hitchcock clearly delights in the bending of doggerel rhyme to construct madcap imagery, and there is an abiding sense of disturbance that follows each lyrical outing -- for all his smiling artifice, you get the impression that Robyn's head is a frightening place to be.
Behind every innocent image is a taste of molecular decay, a character study of a taxidermist, or a flippant fiction regarding the danger of homemade anti-matter.
But before his flagrant weirdness becomes too intimidating, he offers us a glimpse of self-deprecating humour that prevents us from taking him -- or songs like "When I Was Dead" -- too seriously. Not too many performers in this (or any other) festival could make the dissolving of two sugars in black coffee a high-point of the show.
Hitchcock's acoustic guitar playing is seldom less than special; the instrumental tapestry he creates behind his crazed flexings of the English language makes his appeal easy to understand when his lyrics have long-since lost you. When he switches to an electric guitar towards the end of the set, it's easy to see how he and The Soft Boys were so influential at the tail end of the Seventies. His combination of visceral riffs and emotion-catching notes is something to behold, even when he's just making polite conversation as he tunes the guitar according to the dictates of each song.
He leaves us with the wonderful "Airscape", before returning for two more elegant acoustic numbers.
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