Show Review: The Decemberists
Posted on 08 October, 2009 | No Comments
by Gwen Ragno
When: Oct 7, 2009, 8 pm
Where: The Blue Note
I’d be willing to bet that even someone who has never heard a Decemberists record before would have enjoyed this show. It was supposed to take place outside The Blue Note on Ninth Street but ended up being moved indoors, so that was a little disappointing. I was also a little wary when I heard that for this tour the Decemberists were mostly just going to play through their newest album, The Hazards of Love, because I’d never heard the album before. As it turned out, though, going to the concert was the best first-listen I could have asked for. The Hazards of Love is an album-long folk-rock fantasy ballad — and nobody does folk-rock fantasy like the Decemberists.
The Hazards of Love part of the show was less a concert and more a theatrical production – complete with story arcs, repeated musical motifs and good vs. evil. The stage was constantly flooded with colored lights – lots of red and green for the darker pieces, blue and white for the love songs – and the backdrop draped with long columns of gauzy material that soaked up the light and made it look like the band were playing in a dark, spooky forest. It was a bit difficult to follow the story in a concert setting, but I enjoyed it anyway, and I imagine that it’s easier to follow if you have heard the album first.
Two guest vocalists are touring with the Decemberists for The Hazards of Love, and they both did an amazing job. Becky Stark from Lavendar Diamond plays Margaret, a love-struck damsel who gets pregnant and imprisoned over the course of the story. She wore a wispy white gown and danced with slow, sweeping movements, smiling serenely as she sang. Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond played the perfect evil queen, her dark, smoky vocals backed up by pounding power chords. She has an amazing voice (I found out later that she is opera-trained so it makes sense), and the crowd definitely appreciated it – every time Worden came forward to sing her part she was greeted by wild cheers.
The songs of Hazards of Love all flowed into one another, with no breaks or chit-chat in between. In fact, Colin Meloy didn’t say a word to the audience until the end. After playing through Hazards, the band took a short break then came back to the stage to play some of their more familiar, folksy tunes. The crowd loved it, clapping and stomping along, and you could tell that the band were having a great time too. Meloy was much more chatty this time around, and even pulled some of the goofy antics the band’s live acts are known for.
To everyone’s delight, Colin Meloy at one point jumped into the crowd, still holding his guitar, and crowd-surfed a lap around the dance floor as the band continued to jam onstage. Guitarist Chris Funk then followed suit, somehow without losing his hat, and then bassist Nate Query. Jenny Conlee declined, despite Meloy’s and the crowd’s urging, but instead played a “ripping solo” on the accordion. Meloy later commented that we were literally the most supportive people he’d ever met. Later, for “The Chimbley Sweep”, he shushed the crowd to silence again and got everyone to kneel down for the beginning of the song. Apparently he did the same thing at Austin City Limits last week, but it was still pretty fun.
Overall, it was a great show, and despite my reservations, I’m very glad that I went. As a casual fan I thoroughly enjoyed myself, even though they only played two songs that I could sing along to. A guy standing near me (yes I eavesdrop at concerts, who doesn’t?) who mentioned that he had never really listened to them before seemed to be digging it too. If you’d like to listen to The Hazards of Love, the Decemberists have some of it streaming on their website. I encourage you to check out the tracks with the Queen. The Rake’s Song is also great – funny in a dark sort of way.
Note: I didn’t get to catch the opening act, Laura Veirs, but if you did please feel free to comment and let everyone know how it was. Also, if you happened to get any photos of the show, especially of the crowd-surfing, we’d love to put them up on the site! Just e-mail us at iknowcomo@gmail.com.
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