Robyn Hitchcock with Sean Nelson - KEXP Studios, Seattle, WA, 4-15-2016

I've been on a big Robyn Hitchcock kick lately. I think he's another underappreciated musical genius. I plan on posting a lot of his "stray" stuff, both solo and with the Soft Boys.

This is an acoustic concert with just Hitchcock singing and playing guitar, plus Sean Nelson singing backing vocals. (Nelson was formerly in Harvey Danger and The Long Winters.) Also, Hitchcock's occasional singing partner Emma Swift joins in for a couple of songs.

This is a very curious concert, because it's one with no audience at all! What happened was that Seattle radio station KEXP had a special day with Hitchcock on the air with them in the studio for five hours straight. But the station continued their normal programming for the most songs, playing songs by various artists complete with commercials and DJ chatter. However, the theme was "Six Degrees of Separation with Robyn Hitchcock," and they'd play songs that somehow how connections to him. Then, from time to time, Hitchcock (and Nelson) would pop in to join in the banter and play an occasional song. Presumably, there were a few KEXP staffers listening in, but they were careful to never clap or cheer.

I found this on archive.org's live music section, but there were shockingly few views/listens of it. One Hitchcock concert there had more than 100,000 views, but this one only had 700! I consider that shocking, because the sound quality of this is beyond great. It's better than a soundboard, since there's no audience noise whatsoever, and it's recorded in an actual studio.

When I downloaded the files from that site, they totaled to over two hours, and that already had been whittled down from the five hours. But I found some of that was unnecessary, for instance lots of DJ talk with low relistening value. So I whittled it down more to an hour and twenty minutes. Now, this sounds like a normal concert, except for the total lack of any audience reaction.

I think the performance also is excellent, with Nelson's harmonies adding a nice touch. I'm surprised this isn't one of the most popular Hitchcock concert recordings out there.

For better of worse, due to the unusual format, Hitchcock didn't feel to speak his strange monologues between songs. I did keep some of the talking, but it's mostly just straightforward introducing the songs, with some banter with Nelson and/or Swift. I cut out pretty much all the banter with the DJs, since that would take away the impression of this being a concert.

By the way, in case you're curious, I count 14 Hitchcock originals and 7 cover songs (1, 4, 9, 11, 14, 25, and 28).

01 Are You Experienced (Robyn Hitchcock with Sean Nelson)
02 The Wreck of the Arthur Lee (Robyn Hitchcock with Sean Nelson)
03 Balloon Man (Robyn Hitchcock with Sean Nelson)
04 The Only Living Boy in New York (Robyn Hitchcock with Sean Nelson)
05 talk (Robyn Hitchcock with Sean Nelson)
06 Queen Elvis (Robyn Hitchcock with Sean Nelson & Emma Swift)
07 talk (Robyn Hitchcock with Sean Nelson)
08 Madonna of the Wasps (Robyn Hitchcock with Sean Nelson)
09 The Crystal Ship (Robyn Hitchcock with Sean Nelson)
10 talk (Robyn Hitchcock with Sean Nelson)
11 Candy Says (Robyn Hitchcock with Sean Nelson)
12 N.Y. Doll (Robyn Hitchcock with Sean Nelson)
13 talk (Robyn Hitchcock with Sean Nelson)
14 Oh Yeah (Robyn Hitchcock with Sean Nelson)
15 talk (Robyn Hitchcock with Sean Nelson)
16 Adventure Rocket Ship (Robyn Hitchcock with Sean Nelson)
17 Sometimes a Blonde (Robyn Hitchcock with Sean Nelson)
18 talk (Robyn Hitchcock with Sean Nelson)
19 Viva Sea-Tac (Robyn Hitchcock with Sean Nelson)
20 Trams of Old London (Robyn Hitchcock with Sean Nelson & Emma Swift)
21 talk (Robyn Hitchcock with Sean Nelson)
22 Alright, Yeah (Robyn Hitchcock with Sean Nelson)
23 So You Think You're in Love (Robyn Hitchcock with Sean Nelson)
24 talk (Robyn Hitchcock with Sean Nelson)
25 The Butcher (Robyn Hitchcock with Sean Nelson)
26 The Song in My Head Today (Robyn Hitchcock with Sean Nelson)
27 talk (Robyn Hitchcock with Sean Nelson)
28 Quicksand (Robyn Hitchcock with Sean Nelson)
29 Element of Light (Robyn Hitchcock with Sean Nelson)
30 talk (Robyn Hitchcock with Sean Nelson)
31 Mad Shelly's Letterbox (Robyn Hitchcock with Sean Nelson)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15292516/RobynH_2016_KEXPStdiosSeattlWA__4-15-2016_atse.zip.html

The cover art is taken from a YouTube video of Hitchcock and Nelson playing at KEXP.