I was introduced to The Decemberists last year by my friend Adam, and I’ll confess that first impressions didn’t really do it for me. But working from home with your music playing much of the time (I find almost all DJ’s enough to put me off any music radio) you find yourself getting a little tired of the same old “any rated music smart playlist” from iTunes, despite the 3.4 days (81.6 hours) of music that constitutes. It starts getting a little repetitive. Yes, I do have a lot of music. So I revisited the “most recently imported” tracks, and my second or third listen just clicked something inside.
This band is good.
Signing up with a UK MP3 music service recently (more on that in due course), I managed to get (legally, I assure you dear reader) all of their albums, and haven’t really looked back. It’s very hard to put your finger on their sound: At first I got all excited about their lyrics to some of their more amusing songs (The Mariner’s Revenge Song being a particular favourite of mine), but it’s more than that. There’s a fascination with historical stories of (in your best Michael Palin as Pilate in The Life of Brian) “dearing do”, and exploring the peculiar end of life.
Contrast this with many other bands and the ultimately rather stale “I love you lots and lots”, or “You’re a bastard” variations on a theme. It all just gets rather tiring, and, to be frank, boring. Perhaps because for the last few years I’ve been expanding my music tastes across the spectrum, I’ve been exposed to a bit more variety, but when I return to a standard band setup: A guitarist, a drummer and a few other assorted instruments, I like some variety. An on-line review describes them as “theatrical indie pop with British folk sensibilities“. Which kind of summarises them well. Paul, Frances’ brother, described them as “a bit like The Levellers“. To an extent I agree, just without the dominant fiddle (or whatever it is), and a lot more variety and scope.
So last night they were in Glasgow’s ABC, and I dragged Frances along to see them. The warm-up act Lavender Diamond played to a 2/3rd’s full venue (not bad by my reckoning and previous experience of warm-up acts playing to very empty rooms), and amused the crowd with a magical wand and some catchy songs. I’ll be checking them out for sure. But the place went wild when The Decemberists appeared on stage, as you’d expect. They kicked off with three or four tracks from their new album ‘The Crane Wife’, and then did a few from previous albums to please the crowd. Frances enjoyed the ‘mid-gig callanetics’ the lead singer had us do, and the division of the crowd into “us and them” for some competitive ‘la di da de da de didi didi daaa’ during the rousing “16 Militiary Wives” meant the audience couldn’t help but enjoy themselves (we won, I think 
. Frances enjoyed the whole evening too, holding me (justifyably) to fault for only playing some of their more curious tracks as a sampler. My one criticism – and it’s just one – was there was only one song in the encore, and it wasn’t “The Mariner’s revenge song”. Now that’s perhaps me being a bit picky, but I really had my hopes up for that…
But it was a faultless performance (other than the microphone problems that messed up their introduction, but they seized on that as they kicked off). For a band that seems adept at using almost every type of instrument. A real variety of sounds, and almost all of them note perfect. It’s quite impressive when they render a version of the song so effectively from the one I have at home. But with the added live element, variations and improvements. This is no manufactured band by a long stretch, but a band who are clearly well versed in music, and are having fun doing it.
Quality stuff. An excellent gig (one of the best I’ve been to), and a great band that’s sure to grow, experiment, but still retain the particular style they’ve made for themselves. A thoroughly enjoyable evening.
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February 5th, 2007 at 11:41 pm
[...] The Decemberists [...]
March 19th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
[...] Anyway, I digress. I’ve ‘discovered’ a few quality bands of late. I’d previously mentioned The Decemberists, who Frances and I saw live last month, and still highly recommend them. Two other acts are getting a lot of play-time here at Leyton FM, and there are a few other bands that some readers might want to check out. [...]