Sophia - Dec. 5 '10: Theater an der Gumpendorfer Straße, Wien (AT) (Robin solo)

Set list
1. I Left You
2. If Only
3. Swept Back
4. Something
5. Where Are You Now
6. Desert Song 2
7. Oh My Love
8. If A Change Is Gonna Come
9. The Sea
10. Holidays Are Nice
11. Last Night I Had A Dream
12. Heartache
13. Jealous Guy
14. There Are No Goodbyes
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15. So Slow
16. Lost
17. Another Trauma
18. River Song


Review 1
It’s a cold Sunday evening in December, and everybody in the audience is only waiting for one person -- Robin Proper-Sheppard. Everybody has his own expectations of this evening. Mine were shaped through this one day at the end of September last year, when I saw Robin perform with his band Sophia for the first time. So I knew I could expect heartbreaking songs and sad stories about their background.
But it was different this time. This time, it wasn’t that impersonal huge hall of the WUK, where you’re lucky if you’re tall enough to see the stage from the rows in the back. This time, it was only him & me, in a living room. At least that’s what it felt like.
“My life is in my songs, and my songs are my life.” Robin couldn’t have started the evening with a sentence describing his music better than this one. You feel it, with every word, you see it in his expressions, you hear it in his stories. In the two hours of the gig, we accompanied Robin on his journey from love to love, from happiness to broken hearts, from him breaking up to her breaking up, from arguments and jealousy to regret and the insight, that people will always stay with you in some way, no matter how far away they might be.
With every anecdote, the intimacy between Robin and the audience grows. He tells us about an argument with his soulmate, about the death of his mother, about the second try with his last love -- the one big love, that failed. He seems calm, even laughs from time to time, and so do we. And still, in those moments when he stops the sentence for a second, you realize the pain he had to go through -- pain we all know, pain that shapes us.
“It should be about loving someone and that should be enough. But it’s not. But it should be.” He knows what he’s talking about. His albums all deal with those relationships that really mattered to him.
During the gig, he mentions that he feels good -- here, with us. And he gives us the feeling back. He even plays some requests from the audience -- Holidays Are Nice was for Florian, whose girlfriend is moving to another country.
“So much shit has happened since I saw you last time.” He took the words right out of my mouth. At the end of the show, I feel like drowning in melancholy. Robin’s songs make me think about my whole life, of the steps I took, of the people I met, the ones I hurt and the ones that hurt me. Has it all been necessary? How much more will I have to take? Were my decisions right? Could I have done anything different? Will I ever be happy, and nothing but happy? Is this even what I want?
Well. “Life is a bitch, and then you die.”
Thank you, Robin. I never feel more alive than during your concerts.
Anna, www.littleliongirl.com, 12/12/2010


Review
Mit Robin Proper-Sheppard im Theater
“If I say I am jealous, I am jealous.
if I say I am obsessive, I am obsessive.
You can get away with this if you are a songwriter.
But not in real life”
Wenn Robin Proper-Sheppard, besser bekannt als Sänger, Gitarrist und Produzent der Band Sophia, bei einem seiner vielen Wien Gastspiele zu guter Letzt mal solo in einem Theater landet, dann macht er genau das richtige: er unterhält, nicht zuletzt dank Aussagen wie der obigen, sein treues Publikum auf höchster Ebene!
Das Theater an der Gumpendorferstraße, kurzum das TAG, ist noch nicht gerade routiniert was das Veranstalten von Konzerten betrifft. Entsprechend wenig wusste man vom (quasi) Sophia-Konzert am 5. Dezember 2010, der Vorverkauf verhielt sich ruhig und noch wenige Tage vor dem Konzert konnte man ohne Probleme an diversen Vorverkaufsstellen eine der stark limitierten Karten erwerben. Das TAG verfügt über einen variablen Bühnen-/Zuschauerraum für lediglich 47 bis 212 Personen, beim Konzert von Robin Proper-Sheppard begnügte man sich gar auf die fixe, ansteigende Tribünenkonstruktion und bot somit nur knapp 120 Gästen einen überschaubaren und gerade deswegen umso intensiveren Konzertabend.
Robin Proper-Sheppard selbst fühlte sich im auch für ihn neuen Ambiente sichtlich wohl. Seine gute Laune und sympathische Art resultierten in einer astreinen musikalischen Darbietung altbewährter Sophia-Prinzipien, wie unbändige Melancholie und eingängige Refrains in den gitarrenlastigen Liedern. Diese wurden dabei immer wieder mit langen Erzählungen und Schwenks aus dem Leben des in London lebenden Amerikaners miteinander verbunden. Knapp zwei Stunden oder 17 Nummern später, kannte man von Proper-Sheppard wahrscheinlich mehr, als von manchem “echtem” Freund, teilte mit ihm Herzschmerz und trauerte über Todesfälle in seiner Familie und seinem Freundeskreis. Musik, die sich anfühlt wie ein gutes, langes, persönliches Gespräch unter Freunden, ist wohl das Optimum, was man aus einem Solo-Konzert herausholen kann. Dem sympathischen Sophia-Frontman gelang dies in den Theaterräumen des TAG mit Bravour.
Alexander Gewessler, thedeathcat.com, 06/12/2010













Photo by Anna