ROB Dickinson thought his fans had forgotten him – especially since his ’90s groundbreaking shoe-gazing band stopped making records five years ago.
“I was in band called Catherine Wheel,” he told a crowded house at Joe’s Pub in August. “In fact, I may still be in a band called Catherine Wheel.”
The audience didn’t need any reminders, as its members melted with pleasure when Dickinson and an acoustic band of friends performed songs from his new solo disc, “Fresh Wine for the Horses,” and old Catherine Wheel greats such as “Black Metallic.”
“I had no idea the band would be remembered at all with any fondness,” he told The Post over lunch in NoHo. “It’s a joy and genuine surprise.”
The house thundered for an encore, but, the singer left them wanting more – he didn’t have any more songs to play.
“My arm had to be twisted to do an acoustic set,” he admits. “But we’re enjoying it so much. It’s so good to hear harmonies and all that s – – – that gets lost in electric guitars and drums.”
Dickinson, who was raised in Norfolk, England, a sleepy seaside town, moved to New York from the U.K. in 2000 to make a solo album, but the pressures of life interfered with his creativity.
“I suffered from the shock of not having a band around me,” Dickinson says. “I had some fun, some not fun. 2001 wasn’t a lot of fun.”
He was already “in a funk” due to the pressure to make another record. Then the terrorist attack sent him into a deeper blue period.
During a trip to L.A., he connected with David Rolfe who would become his producer. “I needed momentum of having people around, so I jumped on a plane and never came back,” he says.
While 70 percent of the album was written here (including “Black Beauty,” about that tragic day), it took a few more years for him to release it.
“I decided I should be in no rush. I had to do a record that was good that would live up to the legacy of the band,” he says. “I didn’t want to do a record that sounded like the seventh Catherine Wheel record, but I do what I do – I’ve never been a great storyteller. I always do navel-gazing.”
The album’s full of aural treats – which skip from slushly layered reminders of Catherine Wheel to more acoustic numbers and some practically prog rock songs – all tied together by Dickinson’s personal lyrics and spellbinding vocals.
The 40-year-old artist performs on Tuesday at the Mercury Lounge (217 E. Houston St.; [212] 260-4700).
WEDNESDAY: Neko Case is back on tour with Vancouver’s New Pornographers, and her upstanding summer-substitute-vocalist Kathryn Calder has joined the invigorating rockers, so it’s double the female power-pop power at Webster Hall (125 E. 11th St.; [212] 353-1600) on Wednesday and Thursday. Calder does double duty in Immaculate Conception, which opens along with New Pornographer Dan Bejar’s Destroyer.
Plus: The raucous roots music of Waco Brothers, founded 10 years ago by Mekons’ Jon Langford so the Welshman could entertain his traditional country music longings, was dubbed insurgent country before insurgents became shorthand for Iraqi rebels.
The Chicago-based six-piece, just released “Freedom and Weep,” which they will play for you at Maxwell’s (1039 Washington St., Hoboken; [201] 798-0406) on Wednesday and Southpaw (125 Fifth Ave., Brooklyn; [718] 230-0236) on Friday.
THURSDAY: The Burnside Project makes dance beats New Order-synthesizer style and tops them with Richard Jankovich’s vocals (a bit E Eels-ish) for a dynamic, sparkling disc, “The Finest Example is You.” It’s a fine example of good electronic pop. You may remember the band’s “Cue the Pulse to Begin” as the theme song to “Queer as Folk.” The group performs at Rothko (116 Suffolk St.; [212] 475-7088).
THURSDAY Plus: The Loser’s Lounge has found shelter at Joe’s Pub (425 Lafayette St.; [212] 539-8770), after Fez sadly closed earlier this year. To christen the place with music instead of holy water, the variety-show players (with local singers fronting the Loser’s ace band) will tackle the songs in the key of classic Stevie Wonder on Thursday and next Friday and Saturday.