The Decemberists Live! A brief review. [Archive] - Audio & Video Forums

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Swish
04-01-2007, 08:06 AM
Ok, so the four of us make our way to this small, Christian college by the name of Messiah on the outskirts of Harrisburg, PA. The show, according to the Messiah website that sells the tickets for all the shows held in their mid-sized gymnasium, has been sold out, so we decided to drive there in hopes of buying some from a needy college kid. We were there about an hour before the doors opened and, seeing nobody outside selling tickets, ventured inside where I say the "will call" windows. I approached the woman behind the counter and asked her is she had any tickets available and she replied "sure, how many do you need?".

WTF?! I'm a pretty resourceful guy and checked at least a dozen websites trying to find tickets for this show, and they had them for every Decemberists show but this one, so how is it the box office at the school still had some? Who knows, but we were IN! And at just $15 a piece, I felt like I stole them.

The opening act, My Brightest Diamond, was forgettable, although the female lead singer of this 3 piece band had a pretty good, and very powerful, voice, sounding a lot like p.j. harvey, at least on her older records. Lots of very loud hoots and hollers that rattled the gym. I was still glad to see their short set come to an end, and was doubly glad that the stage was already set up for the main attraction, with the opener's gear was set up in front of the Decemberists, meaning there should be a short intermission between the two, and I was right.

Not 20 minutes later, the lights dimmed and some bizarre anthem (my bud Eric said, jokingly, that it was the national anthem of Kazakhstan) that they played to its entirety before coming on stage. There were four large, round Chinese lanterns hanging above the stage, and they hit them with purple spot lights from behind before the band come out, and it looked very cool. In fact, the stage lighting was outstanding the entire night, with lots of different colors and some spots even had a striped effect, alternating white and green in a circular pattern. I'm not one for these kind of frills, but this worked nicely and didn't overpower the performance of the band, but complimented them very well.

One thing I will say was immediately clear; this band has its s<a>hit together. The arrangements were tight, their playing nearly flawless, and Colin Meloy's voice sounded better live, and more powerful, than on their records. They used a ton of instruments throughout the night; violin, banjo, cello, accordion, upright bass, organ, piano, and a bunch of odd bells and noise makers. Jenny Conlee was the most versatile of the bunch, although they were all quite competent and drifted to other instruments at time, including the drummer, John Moen, and bassist Nate Query.

Most of the songs they played were from their newest release, Crane Wife, as you would expect; Crane Wife pts. 1 & 2, The Island - Come and See, O Valencia, When the War Came, Shankill Butchers and Summersong. From Picaresque they played just one tune, The Engine Driver, or at least that's all I can remember. They also played one from the 5 Songs EP named Shiny, and one from Her Majesty titled Song for Myla Goldberg, which was a crowd favorite as Colin coaxed the crowd to sing along with the chorus "I know New York, I need New York, I know I need unique New York". From Cutouts and Castaways came July, July, and the final song of the night, before the encore, was the amusing "A Cautionary Song"

After a rousing standing ovation, the band reappeared and drew thunderous applause as they started in with The Tain Part I and continued to play right through Part V, so it lasted for over 30 minutes as I recall. If you haven't heard this EP, it contains some bawdy lyrics that brought a howl from the crowd, which was comprised mostly of Messiah college students, which, as I mentioned, is a Christian college. "here upon this pillow made of reed and willow, you're a fickle little twister, are you sweet on your sister? Your fallow won't leave you alone. And granted for their pleasure, possesions laid to measure. She's a salty little pisser,with your c<a>ock in her kisser, but now she's a will of her own."

This is presently one of my favorite bands and the show, while not perfect, was right up there among the best I've seen in the last 10 years. Meloy is one of the most literary song writers I can think of (he majored in creative writing at the U of Montana), and his songs are so very different from most rock bands of this era. They tell stories, many based on historical events, usually lengthy and with folk influence, hence the odd instruments they use much of the time. Bottom line: if you haven't given them a good listen, perhaps it's time you did. And if you have a chance to see them, I would greatly encourage it.

Swish

Davey
04-01-2007, 08:36 AM
Ok, so the four of us make our way to this small, Christian college .... I would greatly encourage it.

Swish
Nicely done. Sounds like a real score. Probably not a lot of public drinking before the show, eh?

Swish
04-01-2007, 09:07 AM
Nicely done. Sounds like a real score. Probably not a lot of public drinking before the show, eh?

In fact, most of them looked liked nerds to us old geezers. Not of Napoleon Dynamite caliber, but nerds just the same. I had a bag cooler in my trunk with some Blue Moon and Stoudts American Pale Ale, but we waited until after the show to imbibe since we were on a mission to find tickets. The only thing I can surmise about the availability of tickets at the counter despite the "sold out" status on the school's website is that perhaps they were trying to keep outsiders away? Why else would they do it? Who knows.

A couple funny things during the show; someone tossed a Slinky on the stage, and Colin mentioned he's seen a lot of things tossed his way, but never a Slinky, and then Jenny starts playing the song from the old Slinky commercial (It's Slinky, it's Slinky...) on her Hammond organ and the few geezers in the crowd enjoyed a collective chuckle. I guess the kids never heard that little jingle. A few songs later, one of the girls near the stage (it was SRO on the floor, while we sat on the bleachers in the back section) tossed her bra on stage, and Colin asked "hey, isn't this is a Christian college?", before jumping into the next song.

Swish

Slosh
04-01-2007, 11:35 AM
Nice write-up, Swish. You're certainly a better reviewer than the reporters for my local paper.

NP:

Swish
04-01-2007, 11:42 AM
Nice write-up, Swish. You're certainly a better reviewer than the reporters for my local paper.

NP:

Really? They must be a very sorry lot! Ha! I never considered myself a very creative writer. I can write business letters all day long, but something like this really taxes me and takes me quite a long time.

Just the same, thanks for that, and you should have been there!

Swish

Davey
04-01-2007, 12:17 PM
... one of the girls near the stage ... tossed her bra on stage ... Swish
Hehehe, I can see how Colin might have that effect on the impressionable young ladies, especially if he was "decked" out in his Mariner's outfit ...

http://members.mailaka.net/davey/colin.jpg

:)

Swish
04-01-2007, 12:23 PM
Hehehe, I can see how Colin might have that effect on the impressionable young ladies, especially if he was "decked" out in his Mariner's outfit ...

[img]http://members.mailaka.net/davey/colin.jpg[/img

:)

...and those young college girls were swooning the entire time he was on stage. Lots of high-pitched yelps and screams, along with arms extended toward him on stage. He had them eating out of his hand.

Swish

Davey
04-01-2007, 12:27 PM
NP: Telegraph

Dig it. Curious why you go to the trouble of attaching images instead of just linking to them? My own Light So Dim comp playing here, which just so happens to include a track from that not so old favorite ... in cinematic wide view ...


http://members.mailaka.net/davey/comp_images/lightsodim.jpg

Slosh
04-01-2007, 02:49 PM
Curious why you go to the trouble of attaching images instead of just linking to them?Because all my album art jpegs are already on my HDD. Makes finding albums so much easier when browsing my mp3 player's library (which I only use to play lossless files so I guess I shouldn't call it an mp3 player, eh?). Why would I bother with a link when all I have to do is this :)

NP: "The Hook"

Davey
04-01-2007, 03:09 PM
Because all my album art jpegs are already on my HDD.
How'd they get there? And why? Wasn't that a lot of work? But yea, makes sense if they're all sitting there ready for attaching, but a picture isn't always worth a few words. Unless you've got a hot picture of Coln Meloy in a pirate outfit for Swish Daddy :)

bobsticks
04-01-2007, 03:27 PM
Nice 'view Swish-baby. Thanks for taking the time for us common-type folk.

We get a surprising amount of decent bands out here in the middle of nowhere...because you've gotta drive through here to get anywhere...I hope I'm lucky enough to score some tickets.

I don't find it a stretch to hear of Colin Meloy's literary background. The Crane Wife makes the cerbellum twitch at the challenge, at least for those who have read a book or two, and certainly more than listening to James Ray chant "Giving Ground" for seven minutes. Keep 'em coming.

Peace

ForeverAutumn
04-02-2007, 01:00 PM
Great review Swish. Sounds like a great show.