Have not written in a while, and I feel guilty so here, internet, is your giri choco.

Tonight I went to see the Decemberists in concert at the Fox Theater in Oakland. They are by far my favorite band and this was the eighth time I have seen them (ninth if you count a Colin Meloy solo show), although this was different as I forced one of my coworkers who had a passing interest into coming with me.

The show was as excellent as always, with a really great set list and lots of songs off the new album. In general the new songs sounded wonderful, coming through fuller and richer than the album recordings at times (or more somber as was the case with June Hymn). I think Calamity Song is my new favorite track, replacing This Is Why We Fight although I love that finger-picked 12 string guitar on the latter.

In addition they played a lot of older material, three songs off Castaways and Cutouts and four from Picaresque. It made me a bit nervous, as the person I brought along had only listened to Her Majesty from which they only played Chimbley Sweep although that was easily the highlight of the evening.

On the album, Chimbley Sweep runs three minutes but when played live it tends to get stretched to 10 or more as an extended jam session. Tonight instead of a dance contest, they nominated John (the drummer) to come out front and marry a random couple from the crowd. The “ceremony” included impromptu vows with Jenny and Sara Watkins as bridesmaids, and Nate and Chris as groomsmen. After they kissed, the band launched into “the reception” which consisted of brief and awesome covers of random rock classics.

In a way it makes me feel guilty that I expect these sorts of charades at a Decemberists show; sometimes I read online about how people went to a show where the band was not feeling well, plays for an hour with a one-song encore and no fanfare, but I cannot picture that in my mind. Maybe it is a benefit of living in the Bay Area but every show I have attended (all eight/nine of them now) was very energetic and truly wonderful. The idea that I could go to a show of theirs and not be asked to sing along against the other half of the crowd, or watch as Colin calls someone’s mom and sings her the third verse about murdering people, or watch the Decemberists Family Players act out the defense of Helm’s Deep, or be told to scream like I am being swallowed by a whale seems preposterous. The Decemberists are peddling joy in musical doses, and I am more than happy to take my share.

Thankfully my co-worker had a great time as well, after the second encore he turned to me and said “oh my god, wtf, that was awesome”, which was the response I hoped to get. I probably should have made him go with me years ago, since all of their shows were as good as tonight’s (or have gotten better over time) though I am a strong believer that it is better to be late to a party than to not show up at all.

The other ray of hope was that at the end Colin said “see you next year” which was surprising. The band has announced they are taking an “extended hiatus” after this tour, I assume so the three fifths that also play in Black Prairie can record a new album and Colin can write some books, though I also assumed this would mean a few years without another tour or album. “See you next year” gives me some hope though, even if I had to wait until fall of 2012 that would be fine, eighteen months is not that long at all.

Edit: After listening to a very nice recording of the show, it is clear Colin said ‘We’ll see you again soon’ at the end and not ‘next year’ which I suppose means multi-year hiatus is goooooooooo.

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