The Austin Chronicle
March 18, 1995
Robyn Hitchcock
by Lee Moore
Robyn Hitchcock participated in last year's SXSW, but fans of his music were left disappointed as his only official performance was in the spoken-word showcase. This year, he was back and playing music, but his solo-acoustic set at the UT Ballroom may have left some fans feeling another sort of disappointment. Hitchcock mixed the familiar and the unfamiliar in his set, reaching back to 1986's Fegmania! for a beautiful rendition of "I'm Only You", performing a few newer songs from a recently released EP, and ending with an oddly detached performance of "The Yip Song" (introduced as "a song about cancer").
"Oddly detached" might serve to describe the entire set -- after all these years, Hitchcock's non-sequitur surrealist patter has begun to seem less like freewheeling inspiration and more like Alternative-showbiz schtick. Maybe he was bored, or maybe he just seemed a little lackluster in comparison to John Wesley Harding, whose intense, crowd-pleasing set Hitchcock followed. Maybe he needs to bring the band along next time.
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