Decemberists 3

July 5, 2004

I’ve seen the Decemberists three times now, and coupling that with Duffy roadtripping a few times just to see them, I’m starting to think they’re looking like the Ted Leo of 2004. That is, they’re the act getting way too much coverage from Donewaiting.com. That said, how can you ever get too much of the Decemberists?!?! I know I can’t.

This time, the Decemberists were playing at the El Rey, their biggest venue in L.A. yet. The show wasn’t sardine squished like the Sleater-Kinney shows I saw here a month or so back, but it was pretty much filled, a good sign for Decemberist checking accounts. As before, the pre-show music was Peter and The Wolf, with the music cutting to the Russian national anthem as the band took the stage bathed in red light.

The show wasn’t very different from the once I saw before, with similar setlists and an epic performance of “The Tain,” the 20 minute tour-de-force that is now retired from the regular rotation. Years from now I’ll get to say stupid stuff like “Man, I saw them play the Tain TWICE AND IT WAS AWESOME,” and have some teenager laugh at me and my Motorhead shirt… or something.

It wasn’t a carbon copy though, and there were enough new wrinkles to the evening. The band played two new songs, “Kingdom of Spain” and “The Sporting Life.” The latter is about Meloy’s burgeoning career as a soccer star, a career tragically cut short when he fell on his face at the age of 10 and was too embarassed to go on. I’m not sure exactly what “Kingdom of Spain” is about, but Colin Meloy’s intro read thusly, “After the tour, we’re all going to go to the spa, get massages, get facials. After we get uh… facialed… uh, wait. After we receive … uh, forget it. We’re going into the studio and recording new songs.” Bukakke banter aside, the song itself is a lovely ballad with Colin on piano and Jenny Conlee center stage on accordion.

Other setlist variations included the comeback of “Apology Song,” one of the six songs on the “5 Songs EP.” This one also had a looooong storytime intro, where Meloy explained that Madeline was eventually found, and subsequently crushed by Meloy’s poor driving skills. Apparently it is still tied to a bike rack somewhere in Portland (425 S.E. 3rd Street), with no seat or tires, waiting to be revived. The twist with “Chimbley Sweep” was that the main event guitar confrontation has been replaced with Accordion vs. Airline, Conlee vs. Crutchy, an instrumental duel to the death, the aural equivalent to Bear vs. Shark. Conlee holds her own much better than Colin ever did, pushing her squeezebox to new limits while giving Chris Funk violent stinkeye. Who won? Well, after finishing his beer, Meloy stepped in and balanced his guitar on top of his head, stealing the biggest round of applause.

The encore brought on a slew or surprises. Colin’s solo segment included a bang-on cover of Joanna Newsom’s “Bridges and Balloons,” before his customary turn at “Red Right Ankle.” Normally, when the band starts into “Cautionary Song,” guitarist Chris Funk dances on stage for wont of nothing else to do. This night, he left the stage completely, but not to take a powder. Donning a long black beard and strapping on a lone bass drum, Chris Funk marched through the aisles and through the crowd pounding away with abandon. Hide the women and children, Chris Funk was on the loose! They closed the show with a cover of the Smiths’ “Ask,” which they played as a singalong with the crowd. This was kind of hurt by the fact that most of the crowd didn’t know the words, except maybe the last bit of the chorus. I’ll admit to coming in a bit early with “the bomb that will keep us together,” as I lost count of all the bombs.

What’s next for the band? Well, besides all the *cough* facials, they’ll be shacking up with Chris Walla to record the aforementioned new album, and probably be touring again this fall. Guess where I’ll be this fall? Yeah.

Posted in From Blown Speakers