Nick Lowe / Robyn Hitchcock, NYC April 9

[SallyLightfoot]

On a whim, I decided to check out Nick Lowe and Robyn Hitchcock at the Manhattan Center last night. I arrived shortly into Robyn's (opening) set to see a full ballroom of about 1000 people. Everyone was sitting down during the acoustic set, but the crowd was very enthusiastic.

Robyn played a lot of material from throughout his career, back from 'I often dream of trains' to his recent material. And for solo acoustic, Robyn has a great voice and playing style. If you've ever heard him live, you know that Robyn's voice is piercing and a real treat.

I'm less familiar with Nick Lowe's material, apart from the handful of hits. Nonetheless, I was really impressed. Nick is a bit of an elder statesman from the pub-rock days, so I was slightly surprised by his deep, soulful country/rockabilly sound. He played a mix of songs throughout his career, including lots of classics. Nick was really entertaining, and his material was very engaging-- he has a great percussive string-slapping strum and a lot of stage charisma.

Both artists were superb and I highly recommend either if they visit your area. It made me wish that music concerts were more technically sophisticated, whereupon the concert ends you can purchase a DVD or MP3 of the performance you'd just seen. In the case of Nick and Robyn, those performances were ones I would have gladly plunked down extra $ to relive.

[bigwavedave]

Thanks for the review...I will not be on the fence if Nick Lowe plays my area.

[SallyLightfoot]

Yes, I recommend him without hesitation. His overall sound & material was a bit like Roy Orbison (minus the falsetto), or, if you've heard of him, Richard Hawley, who has a deep, rich voice.

For you musicians, Nick's guitar playing is masterful -- the guy must have callouses in the middle of his fingertips, because he changes chords so fluidly, forming his chords effortlessly with a flat hand.

I don't own any of Nick's recordings, but I am definitely in the market for some now. More than anything else, I would love to get a recording of his live, solo acoustic material. That should serve as an indication of how entertaining I thought he was.

Hey, and Robyn's no slouch either. I wish he'd put a live solo acoustic album out as well, covering his 'Moss Elixir' and 'I often dream of trains' period. His voice is haunting and perfectly matched to his songcraft.