Rock and Pop: Tim Robbins @Union Chapel
Published: 7 October, 2010
by ALAN STAFFORD
IT could be the plot of a dodgy movie – Hollywood star ditches the day job, straps on a guitar, and all the time denies he’s having a midlife crisis.
But there was something very likeable about Tim Robbins in his new guise as a musician.
Perhaps it was because despite his CV of blockbuster movies there was a disarming nervousness about his set. Inspired perhaps by his folk singer father, he clearly wants to be taken seriously as a musician.
And his boyish enthusiasm and earnestness helped carry the evening along as he ran through the band’s new album and a wide range of covers. Self-penned numbers like Song of Josie and Toledo Girl seem a bit lightweight alongside songs from Tom Waits and Warren Zevon, but then again, most things do.
The six-piece Rogues Gallery added musical richness with everything from guitars and keyboards to a cor anglais, though without any sense of great passion.
He finished with a surprising, slow version of If I Should Fall from Grace With God by The Pogues, which resonated like a hymn in the vast Gothic church.
Robbins is going to stay more famous for The Shawshank Redemption than his music. But this was a sincere and at times brave performance.