The Decemberists @ The 9:30 Club
Source: morecowbell.net
My wife put it well last night when she said, “I don’t know why you never want to come see The Decemberists, they’re such great performers.” She was right. I always enjoy seeing them. Sure, the antics can get a little gimmicky, but in the end, I always end up saying to myself, “It’s great to see performers engage their audiences as much as The Decemberists.” Take for example, “the wandering minstrels.”
After an introduction instructing the audience to introduce ourselves to our neighbors and then imagine ourselves in a world being whisked away from the breeze and other elements, we were introduced (again) to The Decemberists.
The Decemberists started their set with “The Crane Wife 3,” followed by the second track from the new LP, “The Island - Come & See/The Landlord’s Daughter/You’ll Not Feel the Drowning.” The set was dominated heavily by new songs, which I was happy to see. While I love the older songs, I’ve definitely had my fill of “The Mariner’s Revenge” and its accompanying gimmicks of particpatory audience screaming. That’s not to say some old favorites were not present: most notably “July, July” and “The Legionnaire’s Lament.”
After applauding Bob Mould and Husker Du, the band launched into an “island version” of “Divide & Conquer”. It was pretty amusing, but I think the cover was lost on most of the crowd. The crowd was not very engaged for the first half of the set. Maybe they were too excited about the nice weather, but whatever it was, The Decemberists worked hard to gain everyone’s attention and once they got it, they commanded it well (as usual). Another highlight, was a re-worked version of “Song for Myla Goldberg.” It was much slower and relaxed from the album version, and a great change-up. Also, at one point in the show, Colin decided it would be a good idea to grab an audience member’s camera and proceeded to take photos of his fellow band mates.
After an 1 1/2 hour main set, the crew stepped off-stage for a few minutes to come back for a quick encore.
They opened the encore with the B-side, “The Culling of the Fold,” and after “Legionnaire” and a very audience-engaged “A Cautionary Song,” the band left to leave the house-lights rise after just shy of two hours of tales of the sea and all things Decemberists-esque.
Tonight’s show will be webcast from NPR’s All Things Considered. Hopefully they’ll get The Tain tonight!
Setlist:
- The Crane Wife 3
- The Island-Come & See/The Landlord’s Daughter/You’ll Not Feel The Drowning
- We Both Go Down Together
- Engine Driver
- Yankee Bayonette (I Will Be Home Then)
- The Perfect Crime #2
- Divide and Conquer (Husker Du) (the island version)
- The Shankhill Butchers
- Song for Myla Goldberg (the slow and steady “remix”)
- O Valencia
- July, July!
- 16 x 32
- The Crane Wife 1 & 2
- Sons & DaughtersEncore break
- Culling of the Fold
- The Legionnaire’s Lament
- A Cautionary Song
