THE SOFT BOYS + OF ARROWE HILL
Notting Hill Arts Club 12th December 2001
Bit of a weird one this - sort of a Poptones Christmas party before the 'proper' bash next week, yet tonight is only billed as Of Arrowe Hill + 'special guests'.
Of Arrowe Hill are a band I've been trying to see all year yet the closest I got was narrowly missing them support Guided By Voices so, as this is my first encounter with them I'll just assume that this wasn't their typical set. They don't play very long, and they have a bit of trouble with a broken string as they have neither spare guitars or strings! They carry on anyway, and I heard the singer say "Let's just wing it!' a couple of times. Nothing wrong with that in my book and there's very little wrong with Of Arrowe Hill's brand of heavy pyschedelia either. It's pretty refreshing to hear a band who aren't compelled to equate psychedelia with folky-noodlings. The obvious comparison is Guided By Voices - the songs are short, sharp and surprising, and or any hook that hints towards power-pop there's another time change or tangential guitar part to take it somewhere strange. Their strongest song is the second single 'Gadfly Adolescence', and with a few more like that in the bag they could really establish themselves. Unfortunately Robyn Hitchcock joins them for one of his own songs at the end and this is so good it overshadows their own material a bit. Still, overall very promising.
Of course, most people are here for Mr Hitchcock and the Soft Boys so it's not surprising that they take the stage to a heroes welcome. I'm no expert on their music and apart from the recently reissued (and expanded) 'Underwater Moonlight' I have heard precious little from their shortlived career. I'm clearly in the minority as there are a lot of Soft Boys obsessives here, who seem to recognise everything! I can tell they're going to read this review and shake their head at my lack of Soft Boy knowledge.
For those of you who don't know anything about them I would direct you to their official website www.underwatermoonlight.com which told me all I need to know. It didn't tell quite how fantastic they would be in an intimate venue like this though! They run through over an hour's worth of material, touching on psychedelia, guitar-pop and Beefheart style blues. 'Only the Stones Remain' is the first one to send the crowd mental, closely followed by 'Kingdom of Love'. Robyn Hitchcock
towers above the crowd, still completely in command of his band, and Kimberly Rew's guitar playing makes it hard to believe that he is best known for writing 'Walking on Sunshine'! ' Underwater Moonlight' is dedicated to David Blunkett and Condoleeza Rice after one of Robyn's rambing rants, another is described as "necessary and effective like Daisycutter bombs", and yet another is respectfully dedicated to George Harrison and Sterling Morrison - two definite Soft Boy influences.
'Old Pervert' is the most obvious Beefheart style they do tonight, though a few of the songs I don't recognise hint at Syd Barrett as well. I imagine 'Japanese Captain' is a newer song which can hold it's own with any of the back catalogue, especially for Robyn's wonderfully rambling middle section. His talent with words is often over-looked when people are compiling lists of great songwriters. 'Insanely Jealous' is the song I was hoping they would play and they don't disappoint me, and total classic 'I Wanna Destroy You' is saved for the first encore.
Should the Soft Boys reform and play gig near you, you really should try your best to see them. Perversely, although I've never really missed them, tonight I'm very glad that they've back- if that makes any sense at all!.
Robyn Hitchcock's performance with Yo Le Tengo is reviewed here.
