Re-Viewed: Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3

By Julene McCoy in Arts & Entertainment on Nov 9, 2006 8:00PM

Last night the concert most likely to be stormed by media was KFed at the House of Blues, which we almost attended before deciding that the $31 a pop they wanted to charge us at the box office was a little steep for a night of schadenfreude. Instead, we hopped on the Red Line and caught Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3 at the Metro.

Robyn Hitchcock had been operating off our radar since we last saw him opening for REM — way back in the good ol' days when our Mommy had to write us notes to skip school. This incarnation of Robyn's band brings back those halcyon days with guitarist Peter Buck (REM), bassist Scott McCaughey (Minus 5, Young Fresh Fellows), and on drums, Bill Rieflin (Ministry).

After the initial shock of seeing middle-aged men with gray hair on stage (rock stars age?), we got caught up in the underlying REM guitar jangle and pop, topped with Hitchcock's Seussian rhymes and poetic lyrics. Robyn congratulated our burgeoning democracy before starting the evening off with "Adventure Rocket Ship", "Sally Was a Legend", and "Ole! Tarantula". The only glitch of the evening came when the band had to restart "If You Were a Priest" a little later.

Hitchcock lovingly dedicated songs to Rumsfeld and Rove while telling humorous (and long) anecdotes between songs, like the Dirty Harry rant before "(A Man's Gotta Know His Limitations) Briggs". It all ended with "I Wanna Destroy You," and we left with a spring in our step because we got to hear the college rock of the early 120 Minutes era that formed our musical preferences so long ago. It's nice to know that Hitchcock and his friends haven't given up on that sound and are making sure we'll get to hear it well into the future.