Originally posted by buddha:Hell, yeah. They're great live. I was at both the aforementioned 9:30 Club and Black Cat shows last year and even Colin Meloy's solo show at Iota a couple months ago. All really great shows. I haven't been disappointed by The Decemberists yet. (If you're one of those people who can't listen to "The Tain" in its entirety though, you might disagree with my assessment of their live performance.) Anyway, I'm really looking forward to hearing the material from the new album performed live.
I'm going out to California for Coachella April 30 and May 1 and wasn't planning on coming back until May 7. I love The Decemberists, but I've managed to miss them every time they came. So I'm just wondering if anyone can tell me how good they are live and if it's worth cutting my trip a day short to come back and catch the show.
Decemberists
The new album's material is awesome live. I saw them play on borrowed instruments and it was great. That's a feat. Still, it's pretty hard to recommend someone change travel plans, not knowing what you like in a live performance or music. If you like them, you will not be disappointed in the show (watch, Colin will have the flu or some shit when they're in DC now…)
Thanks for the replies. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be disappointed but I'm still pretty torn. I saw Colin solo, and would love to see the full band perform. BTW, I think "The Tain" is awesome. It would be great to hear that live. Did they play it at the last 9:30 show?
Yeah, they did, and it's even better live than on the EP.
All tha needs to be said is that Chris Funk wears a fake beard walking around the crowd with a high-school style marching band drum.
MUSIC REVIEW
Decemberists fun in cocky sort of way
By Joshua Klein
Special to the Chicago Tribune
Published April 9, 2005
To call the rise of the Decemberists meteoric would be a bit of an overstatement; save such hyperbole for indie cause celebre the Arcade Fire. Yet the Portland, Ore., folk-rock outfit hit some sort of milestone by handily selling out the Metro Thursday night.
As demonstrated by the band's set, however, the Decemberists aren't nearly as clever and exciting as the band must think itself.
Erudite, twee and more than a little smug, songwriter Colin Meloy spins shaggy dog yarns full of exotic locales, big words and strange bedfellows, more interested in stylized affectation and fantasy than melody or sentiment.
The band, with its matching khaki and orange outfits, was with him every step of the way, but anyone not on the same wavelength as they were could easily feel that their whimsical constructions veered dangerously close to insufferable.
At least Meloy and his cohorts (including violinist and all around charming cheerleader Petra Haden) didn't take themselves as seriously live as they do on their earnest recordings. Wordy songs such as "The Infanta" and "16 Military Wives," from the group's proudly pretentious third album, "Picaresque," were endearing if not quite rousing, though just as often Meloy's literary dramas dragged.
But even at their fun best, as with "July, July!" and the Coleridge-meets-Melville sea shanty epic "The Mariner's Revenge Song," the group's smarty-pants, relentlessly precious and self-consciously quirky music came across like a folksy community theater approximation of They Might Be Giants. And as anyone familiar with that band knows, one is really enough.
Opening was the similarly aligned Okkervil River, from Austin, Texas, another six-piece and – along with Arcade Fire, Bright Eyes and others – part of an increasingly popular wave of shambling and endearingly precocious folk-rock.
Singer Will Sheff, prone to emotional blurts and, like his bandmates, electric and constantly in motion with nervous energy, grows bolder and more confident with each album.
Given that Okkervil River's latest album, "Black Sheep Boy," was only just released, fans were understandably more excited about older songs such as "Red" and "Kansas City," two of several crooked waltzes in the band's rapidly expanding repertoire.
While the crowd looked as if it had its fill by the end of the Decemberists' set, the bespectacled and scarf-adorned audience was dismayed when Okkervil River's tantalizing opening slot sadly came to a halt just as it was gathering steam.
Decemberists fun in cocky sort of way
By Joshua Klein
Special to the Chicago Tribune
Published April 9, 2005
To call the rise of the Decemberists meteoric would be a bit of an overstatement; save such hyperbole for indie cause celebre the Arcade Fire. Yet the Portland, Ore., folk-rock outfit hit some sort of milestone by handily selling out the Metro Thursday night.
As demonstrated by the band's set, however, the Decemberists aren't nearly as clever and exciting as the band must think itself.
Erudite, twee and more than a little smug, songwriter Colin Meloy spins shaggy dog yarns full of exotic locales, big words and strange bedfellows, more interested in stylized affectation and fantasy than melody or sentiment.
The band, with its matching khaki and orange outfits, was with him every step of the way, but anyone not on the same wavelength as they were could easily feel that their whimsical constructions veered dangerously close to insufferable.
At least Meloy and his cohorts (including violinist and all around charming cheerleader Petra Haden) didn't take themselves as seriously live as they do on their earnest recordings. Wordy songs such as "The Infanta" and "16 Military Wives," from the group's proudly pretentious third album, "Picaresque," were endearing if not quite rousing, though just as often Meloy's literary dramas dragged.
But even at their fun best, as with "July, July!" and the Coleridge-meets-Melville sea shanty epic "The Mariner's Revenge Song," the group's smarty-pants, relentlessly precious and self-consciously quirky music came across like a folksy community theater approximation of They Might Be Giants. And as anyone familiar with that band knows, one is really enough.
Opening was the similarly aligned Okkervil River, from Austin, Texas, another six-piece and – along with Arcade Fire, Bright Eyes and others – part of an increasingly popular wave of shambling and endearingly precocious folk-rock.
Singer Will Sheff, prone to emotional blurts and, like his bandmates, electric and constantly in motion with nervous energy, grows bolder and more confident with each album.
Given that Okkervil River's latest album, "Black Sheep Boy," was only just released, fans were understandably more excited about older songs such as "Red" and "Kansas City," two of several crooked waltzes in the band's rapidly expanding repertoire.
While the crowd looked as if it had its fill by the end of the Decemberists' set, the bespectacled and scarf-adorned audience was dismayed when Okkervil River's tantalizing opening slot sadly came to a halt just as it was gathering steam.
ya know, i really hate when writers who don't like the music to start with review live shows. lots of his criticism should have been addressed in a CD review, not in a live review. if you don't like the stuff, why go to the show? it makes no sense.
I'm trying to get my friend to come to this show with me, and so I'm making a mix to introduce him to the band. Any tracklisting suggestions?
Originally posted by buddha:a start:
I'm trying to get my friend to come to this show with me, and so I'm making a mix to introduce him to the band. Any tracklisting suggestions?
july july
legionnaire's lament
billy liar
apology song
Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect
Los Angeles, I'm Yours
Red Right Ankle
The Chimbley Sweep
We Both Go Down Together
16 Military Wives
the tain!
I'd go with Pollards choices.
as alternatives,
song for myla goldberg
leslie anne levine
my mother was a Chinese trapese artist.
a cautionary song
as alternatives,
song for myla goldberg
leslie anne levine
my mother was a Chinese trapese artist.
a cautionary song
i'm partial to the sporting life
Pollard's and Markie's choices are good. Except from the latest album I would pick:
Eli, the Barrow Boy
The Engine Driver
Eli, the Barrow Boy
The Engine Driver
Good choices, but I still need to pick up the 5 Songs EP. I definitely need to add The Engine Driver and On The Bus Mall.
Originally posted by buddha:Apology song might be one of my most favoritest Decemberists songs.
Good choices, but I still need to pick up the 5 Songs EP.
I have only seen it played once though.
Originally posted by Miss MaRpIe:I agree - great song. Haven't heard the recorded version though. I just remember it from Colin's solo show at Iota.
Originally posted by buddha:Apology song might be one of my most favoritest Decemberists songs.
Good choices, but I still need to pick up the 5 Songs EP.
I have only seen it played once though.
I am LOVING 16 Military Wives these days…
we have now successfully listed over 50% of their reasonably available catalogue.
What of their's isn't reasonably available? The Billy Liar single and "Human Behavior"?
Originally posted by chimbly sweep:
we have now successfully listed over 50% of their reasonably available catalogue.