popwreckoning

To get a sold-out show on a Friday at the Paramount, it takes quite a band, and the Decemberists is just the band to do so.

Opening for the Portlanders was Mountain Man, a folk trio of sweet-voiced girls from Vermont. With tonal hints of Joanna Newsom and Emmylou Harris, Mountain Man was a beautiful way to start the show. It was literally just the three of them standing in the middle of the stage with the guitar and their voices.

“Animal Tracks” is a particularly pleasant song, one that spotlighted the lovely harmonies, especially with the unmatched acoustics of the Paramount. While I’d describe the music as beautiful, Mountain Man’s persona was so adorable. In the midst of their 30-minute set, they told stories about life on the road, watching animal documentaries about sea lions mating, and getting high, giggling in the process.

“I’d like to dedicate the first part of this next song to these two ladies over here, because we’ve been touring since about August,” vocalist Molly Erin Sarle said as she introduced one of the songs, “and it’s crazy touring, and I get to do it with them!” It was met with a crowd of “awwwws.”

Mountain Man does have a Bandcamp page, which is the only place you can get their music – so do it. At least listen to it, because their harmonies will give you goosebumps.

After a half hour intermission came the Decemberists, which I will say put on a great show. But I already knew that, as this was my third time seeing them. However, this was by far the longest set I’ve seen from them and by anyone in a long while. They started at 9:10 and didn’t finish until about 11. I only had to pay $6 for parking, but it would have been worth a $30 parking spot to see that whole show.

Jumping right into “The Apology Song,” the Decemberists followed it with a few new songs starting with “Calamity Song” from The King is Dead. But then we went back to the old favourites like “The Bagman’s Gambit” and “Crane Wife” (1, 2, & 3). “Crane Wife 2” even made me feel like crying as the whole venue was dead silent and swayed along with the beautiful ballad, before Colin Meloy started into the third section of the song. It was a wonderfully balanced show, full of emotion, fun, amazing music, and lots of laughs. I’ll get into that laughs in just a minute.

Intermixed with the 17-song set list was frontman Meloy’s undeniable banter, where he proclaimed how much he loved Seattle, how much he loved Mountain Man, and how he “could be doing something more important with his life, but [he’s] just in a band.” That’s plenty important, Mr. Meloy, plenty important.

It was nearly 10:30, and I knew we were closing in on the finale because that’s always where “16 Military Wives” lands in the set list, and the last song of the regular set list was “The Chimbley Sweep.” As it’s a relatively short song, there had to be an extended interlude to go along with it. So right at the interlude of the song, Meloy put his guitar down, and went down in the pit to more or less “borrow” people’s bags from the front row. Then Meloy and guitarist Chris Funk proceeded to empty out the bags on the stage. Funk put on a fuzzy scarf while Meloy put a cap and sat at the drumkit.  Drummer John Moen took the mic and crooned for a few minutes while Meloy beat at the drums like an excited teenage boy.  Literally, this normally about 3-minute song went on for at least 8 minutes.  Soon though, Meloy left the drums and went digging in the bags again and found a phone.

“I’m going to call Anna, okay?” And he dialed the phone, it rang, it rang, and finally Anna picked up.

“Hello, Anna? My name is Colin.” And then Meloy went on to try and explain what was going on, that he was in a band, and that it was too bad she couldn’t be at the show.

“The audience is going to cheer now, okay?” And he held out the phone to all of us to scream wildly, just so Anna could know how much she was missing.

That being the first finale, the Decemberists left the stage for a few minutes after the band handed back the bags to the girls in the front row. But only a few short minutes, then they took to the stage again fro Encore #1, where they played “Eli, The Barrow Boy” and “The Mariner’s Revenge Song,” which ended in all of the people in the crowd pretending to be eaten by a whale. Out of context, we probably all sounded like crazy people, but that’s okay.

The second encore was the stripped-down lovely ballad, “June Hymn,” one of my favourites off The King is Dead, which was recorded in a barn outside Portland. It was a perfect way to end a nothing less than epic Decemberists show. I can’t wait to see them again at the Sasquatch Festival in three months.

Set List:

The Apology Song
Calamity Song
Rox in the Box
Rise to Me
We Both Go Down Together
The Bagman’s Gambit
Won’t Want for Love (Margaret In the Taiga)
Crane Wife 1 & 2
Crane Wife 3
Don’t Carry It All
Down by the Water
This Is Why We Fight
16 Military Wives
The Chimbley Sweep
Encore:
Eli, The Barrow Boy
The Mariner’s Revenge Song
Encore 2:
June Hymn

I want to take a long drive through the mountains listening to the new the Decemberists‘ album The King is Dead: in the springtime, when the glaciers are just starting to melt and it’s not so hot so we can drive with the windows down instead of using the air conditioning, with our hands making waves outside the car windows along to the breeze.

It hit me today as I was walking my dog with my earbuds in listening to “June Hymn,” one of the latter songs on The King is Dead, how much I loved it. I’d heard the song live back when I saw the Decemberists at MusicFest Northwest in Portland September, but I’d forgotten how beautiful it was.

Beautiful. If I had to come up with one word to describe The King is Dead, it would be that. A stark difference from the epic folk opera The Hazards of Love, and closer to the feeling of The Crane Wife, but far simpler. The King is Dead is a collection of truly lovely ballads, heartbreaking laments, and down-home ditties. Even though the band consists of seven regular members, many of the best songs on the album, “January Hymn,” “June Hymn,” and “Dear Avery” feature for the most part front man Colin Meloy’s acoustic guitar and his wonderful harmonies with guest Gillian Welch.

The album starts off with the upbeat “Don’t Carry It All,” which aptly begins with the harmonica, giving us a glaring hint of what’s to come. We continue on with “Calamity Song,” a song that at first listen is catchy and delightful, but with Meloy’s clever song-crafting, you come to realize that it’s about the end of civilization. With phrases like “queen of supply-side bonhomie bone-drab” and “in the year of the chewable Ambien tab,” no wonder Meloy can trick us into singing along gleefully to a song about the end of days. Nearing the end of the album come a couple of sure-hits, “This Is Why We Fight” and “Down By The Water,” the latter of which was released back in November 2010.

There are a few songs on the album that almost remind me of “yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum,” but not a campy pirate shanty. Probably due to the accordion and fiddle, “Rox in the Box” makes you want to grab a pint and hike up your skirt and do a little jig, figuratively speaking. But the Decemberists’ sound is so very much their own, none of it seems out of place.

Now I don’t like country, but based on everything that the Decemberists employ on this album, you could call it country. Country…folk…rock…whatever it is, I like it. If all country sounded like this, with the subtle mandolin, banjo, not-so-subtle harmonica, and accordion, I’d be a country fan.

Earlier I said I’d like to listen to this album whilst driving through the mountains. I lied. I’d like to listen to it everywhere. It’s a throwback to when music, when life, when everything was simpler. Even to when recording was simpler, seeing that The King Is Dead was actually recorded in a barn outside Portland.

I’d be all for a barn tour. Now that would be the perfect place to listen to it, in a barn laying in a pile of old straw with the sun creeping in through the cracks in the decaying wood walls.

Track Listing:

1. Don’t Carry It All
2. Calamity Song
3. Rise To Me
4. Rox In The Box
5. January Hymn
6. Down By The Water
7. All Arise!
8. June Hymn
9. This Is Why We Fight
10. Dear Avery

Today on Twitter, The Decemberists‘ frontman Colin Meloy announced the title of the group’s upcoming album, The King Is Dead.

The album will be released January 18, 2011.

You can download a free track from the album called “Down By the Water” here.

As the weekend was nearing its close, I started the penultimate day of Musicfest Northwest – Saturday at Pioneer Courthouse Square with Laura Veirs and the Decemberists. Pioneer Courthouse Square was the only outdoor venue at all of the festival, right in the heart of Portland surrounded by high rise buildings. Even though I parked a good 5 blocks away, the music rang down the streets as I made my way to Pioneer.

People had already filled the midtown square as Laura Veirs took the stage with her low-key alt country folk tunes. Playing songs mostly off her new album July Flame, which went back to her folk roots after the less-than-overwhelming Saltbreakers, the soft harmonies were perfect for the sunny late afternoon we were having.

For the last song, Veirs called out “some friends” to come sing with her during “July Flame.” Those friends included several other Portland musicians, Colin Meloy of the Decemberists being one of them. As the song grew, the stage full of musicians sang out “can I call you mine, can I call you mine?” It was such a lovely display of local musician love, that it made me want to move to Portland right then and there.

But that evening wasn’t even close to over.

After a short break, The Decemberists stepped out as the sun was started to set on Portland. I must tell you that Colin Meloy is one of those characters that you feel so close with after seeing play live. No matter how large the audience, he brings everyone in this big musical lovefest. At one point he mentioned, “This is an attractive city. We’ve been to a lot of cities, and I must say that Portland is looking pretty good…relatively.”

But it got better.

After playing through some old favorites like “16 Military Wives” and “The Infanta,” we got the breezy “Summersong” as Meloy said we’re just coming out of the summer, so it made sense.

“So, after a song about summer, let’s talk about infanticide!” Meloy said.  Only at a Decemberists concert would you hear people cheering about killing infants. After the positively morbid “Rake’s Song,” the band started the riffs for “O Valencia” off The Crane Wife, and the entire crowd lit up in excitement and sang out along with the chorus a resonant “O Valencia!” However, right in the middle of the song, Meloy changed keys for just a minute and softly let out with a giggle, “Dracula’s daughter, Dracula’s daughter, Dracula’s daughter got it bad.” For people who got the reference, it was what Meloy referred to as “the worst song [he] ever wrote” on a live solo album he released several years ago. It got some laughs, but for those of us who did get the reference, it was almost like an inside joke that made us look crazy to the people who didn’t get the jokes.

Not only did the Decemberists play the songs we all know and love in their 90-minute set, but they did play a few new ones as well. That means a new album coming up, so that definitely made me excited.

As the sun was set, and the lovely glow of the Nordstrom’s sign shone upon us all, the Decemberists began their final song – “Sons & Daughters.”

“I know you all know what day it is, and I don’t need to hammer that home any more, but since you’re all here and we can do this, I want everyone to sing this. But not only sing it, but to walk away with it ringing in your head.” And on that evening of the 9^th anniversary of 9/11, Meloy instructed the audience to sing together in resounding unison “here all the bombs fade away.” That song – and their set – ended in such a moving way that I teared up a little bit, and I’m not ashamed to admit that.

Aww, I love The Decemberists.

At that point I’d contemplated trying to get to the Wonder Ballroom to see the Smashing Pumpkins, but thankfully a friend of mine had already tried and she let me know before I left that it was way too crowded for anyone to get in with even half an hour to spare until the show started at 10:15. So I took short break at Powell’s Books since it didn’t close until 11 p.m. before walking – literally right down the street from my car – to the Crystal Ballroom for Akron/Family and Menomena. How I managed to park closer to the Crystal than Pioneer Courthouse Square is beyond me, but it certainly made getting around for the rest of the night incredibly convenient.

I arrived to the Crystal mid-set for Akron/Family, and they were completely not what I expected. I didn’t know what to expect, to be honest, but they were so intense and energetic that I didn’t even need to know any of the songs to rock out and dance. With Afron/Family’s crazy mix of electronica and folk music, they really know how to get a room moving. The songs were long and epic and wildly mesmerizing. I regret not getting there earlier to see the whole set, because the 15 minutes I did see were really awesome. So you should see them if you get the chance to.

But I must say with how many fantastic performances I’d seen over the last four days, the greatest one was to come that evening, with Menomena. Up until then I hadn’t been right up against the stage at the Crystal Ballroom at all. That thing vibrates. Every time a heavy bassline kicked in, the water bottle below Brent Knopf’s keyboard visibly shook.

Having just released their third LP back in July, Mines, Menomena started off their mindblowing – and I’m not being facetious – show with “Tithe,” a thrilling track off the new album. I don’t know what planet the guys of Menomena are from, but they are definitely all on the same otherworldly brain wave, because the music and energy these guys put out is amazing. You have the stark and angry “The Pelican” and the soft and eerie “Evil Bee” off of Friend and Foe, and the heartbreaking “INTIL,” which features mostly Knopf on keyboard and crooning “I never thought I’d lie…sometimes I say too much” over and over again.

Not only are the songs so deeply impactful live, but the musicianship with Menomena is so random that you almost wonder how they came together in the first place. Justin Harris plays bass and baritone sax. In no other band will you get to hear baritone saxophone. And I thought when I heard Friend and Foe for the first time that they used a drum machine. Nope, Danny Seim is just that good.  One thing that I did notice about the new songs was the heavier hand that the guitar took. Menomena even brought in a new member as a lead guitarist to give Mines a rounder sound. And even though the sound has advanced, the band has kept the essence of Menomena, songs that sound completely cohesive and also unique to each member of the band – Knopf’s gentle voice, Harris’ powerful voice, and Seim’s deep and musky voice.

I was so thoroughly impressed that I haven’t really stopped listening to Mines since the show. I was even thinking about skipping out early to see Japandroids at the Doug Fir Lounge that night as well, but after a few of Menomena’s songs I realized I would definitely be staying for the whole thing.

Alex Dashino and Varvara Volodina of the Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design crafted a stunning animated video for The Decemberists‘ “The Rake’s Song.”

“Any video referencing Baba Yaga, that lovable Russian folktale mainstay, is A+ in my book” – Colin Meloy, singer of The Decemberists.

Watch the video:

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