With dirty hands and trousers torn

The Decemberists were amazing last night, and I had no travel drama to speak of. My friends John and Kathleen went with me, and we met up with our friends Jill and Chris. Jill is a bit of a fanatic, so she was in line at the Riviera before noon. But her stalking paid off, since she met Colin Meloy and got his autograph and a picture with him. And she was in the front row. We did not get there so early, but we still had a great location in the theater.

The set was very heavy on songs from The Crane Wife, which was just fine with me. The opening song was a bit of a surprise, as they reached back to "Leslie Ann Levine," and followed that with two songs from Picaresque.


Here is the Setlist:
Leslie Ann Levine
We Both Go Down Together
The Engine Driver
The Crane Wife 1 & 2
The Crane Wife 3
Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)
O Valencia!
July, July!
16 Military Wives
The Island
Sons and Daughters

Encore:
Red Right Ankle
A Cautionary Song


The two epics from The Crane Wife were stirring and wonderful, and the drums in "July, July" were revved up to new heights.

Colin was very entertaining, interacting with the crowd quite a bit. The highlight was toward the end of "16 Military Wives," when he started a singing duel in the audience. The show was sold out, so 2,800 fans were squeezed in, but Colin had the crowd divide down the middle , and we had a sing-off, each side trying to outdo the other in our singing of the "La dee da dee da" part of the song. As we sang, Colin told us we had to growl and shake our fists at the other side, and he interjected various provocations: "Are you going to let them say that to you?" etc. Highly entertaining.


Another bizarre moment came during the last song, "A Cautionary Song." Half of the band came down into the crowd, cleared a large circle, and with the help of some fans staged a re-creation of the final battle in The Hobbit. The Decemberists truly are nerd pop.

The only negative of the evening was that the dorky guy in front of me had a serious and foul gas problem all night long.

The musical highlight was "Sons & Daughters," which concluded with a huge audience sing-along of the "Hear all bombs that fade away" part. It was a beautiful scene.