I like bananas because they have no bones

Actually, I hate bananas for a large variety of reasons. But anyways, I finally pulled myself out of my concert going slump and went to see Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3 in Islington last night and I was pretty pleased that I did. I haven't kept up so well with Robyn in the past few years, about half the songs were unfamiliar to me but I enjoyed them and a few of them have lodged themselves in my brain still, like Adventure Rocket Ship.

It was a mix of a few old songs and mostly new ones. The Venus 3 consist of Peter Buck (from R.E.M.) and two others I don't know. Ahh, so sort of R.E.M. related too and links to Ministry and Young Fresh Fellows. Thank you Wikipedia. It was funny watching Peter Buck in another context besides R.E.M. He switched back and forth between 6 string and 12 string. When it was 12 string, most of the songs had a bells of rhymney feel to them. I think I concluded that Mike Mills really is the cool one in R.E.M. though, even though I wish he would stop wearing that rock jumpsuit he has been so attached to in recent years.

The setlist that I remember went something like (a bit out of order and a lot missing):

Acid Bird
Television
If You Were A Priest
N.Y. Doll
Adventure Rocket Ship
Madonna of the Wasps
A Man's Gotta Know His Limitations, Briggs
Arms of Love
Jewels For Sophia
Ole! Tarantula

Encore:
I Often Dream Of Trains
See Emily Play
Kingdom Of Love
Encore:
Give It To The Soft Boys
Listening To The Higsons (band switched instruments)

I suppose I will always be hoping for more Soft Boys or the Egyptians period stuff. It was nice to hear some familiar ones and sing along with them. I loved the introductions to the songs. I couldn't figure out how much of it was sort of repeated night after night and how much he just kind of made up on the spot (all the references to small creatures like squirrels and gerbils, etc). Looking at set lists from other shows, it seems like there is quite a rotation of songs, so I guess it isn't all just prepackaged then. It is nice that I get so many more of the references now that I didn't before I moved to England. It adds a whole new depth to it all.

The best part of the show was the encore. He played I Often Dream of Trains solo with just a little bit of drums. Then the Magnetic Horns were back for a rather noisy version of See Emily Play (a few times during it I found myself thinking of Half Japanese). And Kingdom Of Love, it is one of my favorites, always has been. Then another encore and a fun version of Give It To The Soft Boys nearly scratched the Soft Boys' itch enough. They all switched around (Peter Buck on drums, etc) and finished with a noisy version of Listening To The Higsons.

So, I went home happy. Good to see a legend. I'll have to drag myself out a little more often here.