Anyone familiar with this guy? Saw him opening for Damien Jurado last night, and came away with mixed feelings. His band was hellaciously smokin', and it sounded as if he had some decent songs, but good lord, the guy's vocals - at least when he's on stage - sounded like a constipated Adam Sandler imitating Adam Duritz after being stung on the tongue by a bee.
I declined to pick up a copy of his disc, but listening to the clips on iTunes now, that may have been an oversight. On disc, he seems to be able to annunciate, something that would have been quite helpful in concert - last night I swear he was only singing the middle part of each word. I had to wonder if he'd taken the Jet Screamer route and lifted all his lyrics from Elroy Jetson's secret code. But his voice on the recorded version of his stuff sounds acceptable. So I guess he just has a bizarre (and ill-conceived, in my opinion) stage delivery.
Jurado was great, as I figured he would be. And the other opener, Theodore, may be the best StL alt-country band I've seen since the heyday of Tupelo & the Bottle Rockets.
If only Robinson had sung actual words instead of "Oog urp iji arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr" like his life depended on it, the entire show would've been outstanding.
