Rob Dickinson (of Catherine Wheel)
Schubas (in Chicago) 2/22/6
Before I start gushing about Rob Dickinson’s voice, let me say that I was quite cynical about the new solo album of his, Fresh Wine for the Horses for quite a long time. However, I recently discovered that if you start the album around track 6 or so, it actually seems like a stellar ep and a satisfying progression from Wishville. It’s a shame to me that Rob decided to put all of the filler radio fodder songs up front but thankfully, because I have a real love for the man’s voice, I kept listening.
That being said, because of his amazing voice, even the new songs came off much better live. Slightly jarring was that Rob tried to come off as edgy and compromise between a true acoustic set and a plugged in one. So, at times, he would sort of “turn on” his guitar and play a few heavily distorted angsty chords then go back to the acoustic bits.
Probably the best of this show and what I think ultimately made the admission price truly worth it was that Rob played many Catherine Wheel songs including, “Heal,” (which he opened with) “All of that” “Crank,” “Little Muscle,” “Future Boy,(as an encore)” “Eat My Dust You Insensitive F*ck” and as an ending to the first set he played “Black Metallic.” Many of the older songs were also complimented well by his harmonica playing.
Inbetween Catherine Wheel songs, he interjected some of the songs off his new album including, “My Name is Love,” “Handsome,” “Bathe Away,” “Oceans,” “The Storm,” and “Towering and Flowering.”
My only real complaint overall of this show was that it was just too short, clocking in at a mere 75 minutes. Then again, I could have listened to Rob play all night.
