I've been a fan of The Psychedelic Furs and Robyn Hitchcock for a very long time. Both artists share a psychedelic influence and come from the late 70's UK punk movement. Robyn's old band, The Soft Boys, opened for the Furs in 1980 and Robyn has covered "The Ghost In You" since the late 80's. So, despite some obvious stylistic differences, they are most certainly peers.
This is my third time seeing Robyn in the past sixteen months, and he's finally come around to embrace his legacy. He's performed "Balloon Man" and "Madonna Of The Wasps" at all of these shows, songs he'd snubbed in the past in lieu of then-recent compositions. He apologized that night for having a case of the flu, but his performance was seemingly unaffected by any such ailments. His playing was as nimble as ever and his voice was in fine form. Classics like "Heaven", "I'm Only You" and "Queen Of Eyes" all got airings as did newer classics like "I Pray When I'm Drunk", "Saturday Groovers" and "Mad Shelly's Letterbox".
It was a little strange seeing Robyn open for anyone, but, given his slot and his flu, after twelve songs he departed the stage. He didn't even hang out at the merch table greeting fans, which has become a post-show ritual for Hitchcock as of late. Hell, there wasn't even any merchandise of his at the merch table.
I'd only ever seen the Furs once before, about ten years ago. They were good then. They were even better this time. Singer Richard Butler and bassist/brother Tim Butler are backed by lead guitarist Rich Good (ex-The Pleased), longtime sideman saxman Mars Williams (ex-The Waitresses), keyboardist Amanda Kramer (ex-Informantion Society) and drummer Paul Garisto (ex-Iggy Pop). They were a very capable band who were far more engaging than I'd anticipated.
They opened with the bonafide classic post punk single "Dumb Waiters". Sadly, they didn't perform anything from their classic self-titled debut album, but they did a bunch from it's equally classic follow-up Talk Talk Talk ("So Run Down", "Pretty In Pink", "No Tears" and "Mr. Jones") and few from Forever Now ("Love My Way" and "President Gas") plus later singles ("House", "Heaven", "The Ghost In You" and "Heartbreak Beat").
All in all it was fantastic show at a fantastic venue.
