Philadelphia Inquirer
March 22, 2001
Soft Boys Rejuvenate Hitchcock
by Dan DeLuca
Robyn Hitchcock has such a well-deserved reputation as an oddball -- all those songs about insects, fish, and viscous fluids -- that it is easy to overlook his considerable talents as a melodist, guitarist, and singer with a John Lennon sting in his voice.
On Tuesday at the Theatre Of The Living Arts, Hitchcock made his ample attributes apparent as he fronted The Soft Boys, the Punk-era band featuring guitarist Kimberley Rew, drummer Morris Windsor, and bassist Matthew Seligman that he founded in Cambridge, England (significantly, the birthplace of Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett), in 1976.
The Soft Boys, who broke up in 1981, are reunited in celebration of the re-release of Underwater Moonlight (Matador). The 1980 album of bright, Byrdsian Psychedelic Power Pop was to have a profound influence on that decade's American underground Rock scene in general and R.E.M. in particular.
Being back with his old mates enlivened the rangy Hitchcock, 48, who dedicated the majestic Reagan-era "I Wanna Destroy You" to President Bush, traded wiry guitar licks with Rew (author of Katrina And The Waves' "Walking on Sunshine"), and, thankfully, told only one willfully eccentric tale of "a fish that had no end". The band's tight, propulsive 90-minute set included almost the whole of Underwater Moonlight, a few forays into the prodigious Hitchcock solo oeuvre, and a ringing cover of Pete Seeger's "The Bells of Rhymney" by way of Roger McGuinn.
Openers the Young Fresh Fellows were led by Seattle Rock legend Scott McCaughey (pronounced McCoy) and featured Kurt Bloch of the Fastbacks on guitar. The quartet turned the trick of never seeming serious as they sneaked in such solemn meditations as "Worthless" between cheerfully bashed-out nuggets as "Barky's Spiritual Store" and "Mamie Dunn, Employee of the Month".
All were drawn from Because We Hate You, half of the excellent new double CD on Mammoth records that the group shares with McCaughey's other band, The Minus 5. Hitchcock referred to the not-so-young Fellows as "probably the greatest Rock 'n' Roll band in the world." A stretch, perhaps.
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