I am somewhat of a Hitchcock novice and it’s the first time seeing him after being recommended by my companions tonight ‘The Twin Towers’ (The Burgess Brothers who are big fans). We are also joined by Antony Head and Big Al.
Nashville based Hitchcock is a bit of a British institution with his quirky idiosyncratic and witty songs written throughout his long career. I’m not quite sure what to expect tonight, stand up show or concert and in the end it turns out to be a bit of both.
It’s a solo show and with just an acoustic guitar and polka dot shirt for company, Hitchcock rattles through his back catalogue. I am familiar with about half of the material and for me some worked and some didn’t with it sometimes veering off into a caricature of himself almost trying too hard to be quirky. In between songs the stories and random observations worked about fifty percent of the time and I am sure that this is blasphemous to his legion of fans as I suspect that is one of the reasons they come to the shows but it was not really for me.
He is joined occasionally on stage by Emma Swift and it is in these moments that the songs really shine with Swift providing accompaniment and harmonies that give depth to the material with the songs being played straight.
All in all an interesting night and I’m glad I’ve seen him but I will probably stick to the recorded output rather than live.
Keep on rockin y’all.