The Decemberists Players Present
Ah, there's always plenty of audience participation at a Decemberists show. Saturday night in Chicago was no exception to the rule. (The show was at the Riv ... it occurred to me that I've seen the Decemberists five times now, and Colin twice - all in Madison or Chicago - and not once at the same venue.)
I was feeling seriously lazy after my late Friday, and I briefly entertained the notion of passing this one up. But in the end I just couldn't do it. I've found in general that as tempting as it may be, the "doing nothing" option is never the choice I'm happiest with afterward. Also, I already had a ticket, I love The Crane Wife, and I've never had a bad time at a Decemberists show. So down I went.
Alasdair Roberts, along with drummer and bassist, opened the show. He was ... Scottish. The music was fine; your typical traditional Celtic-type fare. His accent was the best part of the performance for me.
The Decemberists took the stage around 8:30 and launched immediately into "Leslie Anne Levine". Yay! They actually played only six of the ten songs on The Crane Wife (or 9 of 13, depending on how you look at it) but they were the songs I most wanted to hear, so that was fine with me. They played "The Crane Wife 1 & 2", and "3" in order, apparently for the first time.
Besides the new songs and the opener, we also heard "We Both Go Down Together", "The Engine Driver" (swoon), "July! July!" into "16 Military Wives" (fun!), and an encore of "Red Right Ankle" and "A Cautionary Song". Oh, and a snippet of, um, "Clampdown", after Colin misheard someone's request for them to "play 'The Final Countdown'".
Aside from the usual singalongs, the first major crowd participation bit came when Colin decided to divide the theater down the middle and pit the right side against the left side in singing the end of "16 Military Wives". I happened to be on the front line - lucky me! In addition to singing we were encouraged to leer, growl, and shake our fists at the opposition.
The second crowd participation bit came when, during "A Cautionary Song", half of the Decemberists made their way to the middle of the floor, had the crowd form a circle, and Colin announced that "The Decemberists Players" were going to reenact for us the battle at the end of Lord of the Rings. Having never seen the battle at the end of Lord of the Rings, I can't remember specifics, but I know that there were elves and Orcs and Chris Funk was a big bird. I could have done with one more song to close the show, with the whole band onstage, but oh well.
No mandolin was destroyed at the end of this performance, unlike last time I saw the band, but it was still a fun night.
The band
Colin
John Moen during the LOTR reenactment
I was feeling seriously lazy after my late Friday, and I briefly entertained the notion of passing this one up. But in the end I just couldn't do it. I've found in general that as tempting as it may be, the "doing nothing" option is never the choice I'm happiest with afterward. Also, I already had a ticket, I love The Crane Wife, and I've never had a bad time at a Decemberists show. So down I went.
Alasdair Roberts, along with drummer and bassist, opened the show. He was ... Scottish. The music was fine; your typical traditional Celtic-type fare. His accent was the best part of the performance for me.
The Decemberists took the stage around 8:30 and launched immediately into "Leslie Anne Levine". Yay! They actually played only six of the ten songs on The Crane Wife (or 9 of 13, depending on how you look at it) but they were the songs I most wanted to hear, so that was fine with me. They played "The Crane Wife 1 & 2", and "3" in order, apparently for the first time.
Besides the new songs and the opener, we also heard "We Both Go Down Together", "The Engine Driver" (swoon), "July! July!" into "16 Military Wives" (fun!), and an encore of "Red Right Ankle" and "A Cautionary Song". Oh, and a snippet of, um, "Clampdown", after Colin misheard someone's request for them to "play 'The Final Countdown'".
Aside from the usual singalongs, the first major crowd participation bit came when Colin decided to divide the theater down the middle and pit the right side against the left side in singing the end of "16 Military Wives". I happened to be on the front line - lucky me! In addition to singing we were encouraged to leer, growl, and shake our fists at the opposition.
The second crowd participation bit came when, during "A Cautionary Song", half of the Decemberists made their way to the middle of the floor, had the crowd form a circle, and Colin announced that "The Decemberists Players" were going to reenact for us the battle at the end of Lord of the Rings. Having never seen the battle at the end of Lord of the Rings, I can't remember specifics, but I know that there were elves and Orcs and Chris Funk was a big bird. I could have done with one more song to close the show, with the whole band onstage, but oh well.
No mandolin was destroyed at the end of this performance, unlike last time I saw the band, but it was still a fun night.
The band
Colin
John Moen during the LOTR reenactment
Labels: concerts, Decemberists, Riv
posted by BeeKay at 7:34 PM
1 Comments:
You are such the party girl! ;)
I love that pic you posted on Melissa's myspace. Jodie looks rather tomboy, wouldn't you say!?
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