Hitchcock reminisces about spending time as a kibbutz volunteer and missing a visit to the kibbutz by Bob Dylan
By DAVID BRINNROBYN HITCHCOCK performs at Levontin 7(photo credit: DANNY FINKENTHAL)
Quirky British songwriting legend Robyn Hitchcock was summoned from his glass bottle sitting on a mantle in his Nashville home for two shows in Tel Aviv over the weekend.That was how the 67-year-old guitarist/pianist explained his sold-out appearances at the cozy Tel Aviv basement club Levontin 7 on Saturday and Sunday after an absence of seven years from an Israel stage.The master psychedelic folkster mesmerized the rapt audience for nearly two-hours of impassioned renditions of his alternate universe of hits and oddities, dotted with hilarious, rambling between-song fables, including reminiscences of spending time as a kibbutz volunteer on Givat Haim in 1971 as an 18-year-old, and missing a visit to the kibbutz by Bob Dylan and his family because he decided to take a rare shower before lunch.Dylan is who Hitchcock aspires to, if the American bard had grown up in a rundown British industrial town and been a Monty Python disciple. Hitchcock puts his unique signature on any lyric, melodic turn or vocal arrangement. His rock & roll acoustic guitar sounds like a wall of sound and his strong, high voice cascades over his songs.Much of the audience knew the bulk of the material and sang along, mostly on signature tunes like “I Often Dream of Trains,” “Glass Hotel,” “Sally Was a Legend” and the final encore, “Queen Elvis.”Raw, insightful, tender and funny – and most of all, human and real – Hitchcock is a musical treasure, who will hopefully emerge from his glass bottle more often.
