The Decemberists – Live at the Orpheum 11/4/06

November 6, 2006 at 7:59 am | Posted in Concerts | 1 Comment

I’m going to start this review off by saying, I have never seen so many families at a concert before in my life, I’m talking moms, dads, children – literally the whole family. Did I feel out of place here? Did the Decemberists play all of the Crane Wife? Did they only play one song off Her Majesty? Has Colin Meloy become a rock star? The answer to all of these questions is yes.

The last time I saw the Decemberists was about a year ago at the Avalon and was blown away. First off they started the show by playing all of the Tain and hence the reason for my obsession and the reason I decided to go to this show. I have had bad experiences of seeing bands I like at larger venues and not enjoying it before, but for some reason I figured since the Decemberists are so theatrical to start with they would only use the larger stage to their advantage. I was wrong. There was no advantage to seeing them on a larger stage, only drawbacks. my only explanation is that the larger a stage is, the more distant the band members and thus the more spread out their energy is dispersed amongst this vast open space. Call me crazy, but I can’t think of any other reason why some of my favorite bands whom I’ve seen perform amazingly live before all of a sudden suck when they play at larger venues.

OK, now – let’s get down to the nitty gritty, the concert wasn’t all bad, just not as I had hoped. On a positive note, all of the songs were played very well, just as they sound on the album. I thought that “The Island, Come And See, The Landlord’s Daughter, You’ll Not Feel The Drowning” (yes the song is just as long as the title) was played masterfully, from the distorted guitar feedback intro all the way through the Who’s Next “Baba O’Reilly”esque keyboard breakdown. And of course Meloy made sure the crowd joined him in singing along to “After the bombs” exclaiming “This is Massachusetts, after all.” This was not the last reference to Boston being the birthplace of civil liberties when he attempted to re-enact the Boston Massacre midway through “A Cautionary Song” as seen below. What was gained in the recreation of the songs was lost in the enthusiasm of the band members as they played them. At one point during The Perfect Crime 2 (one of my least favorite songs off the new album) I could swear the bassist looked like he was pissed off. But it wasn’t just the bassist, on different songs throughout the set I would look over at various members of the band and it just seemed as if they were not having fun. Well, I hope this doesn’t change anyone’s opinion of the Decemberists because I would still consider them one of my favorites, and honestly, what other band do you need to have a dictionary on hand when you’re reading the liner notes along to a song.

Posted By: ALEX