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Concert Sun Nov 12 2006
By Land, By Sea, By Dirigible
As the Decemberists' following has grown, so has the spectacle of their live shows. While organized audience participation can be fun, and it was certainly appropriate at last year's Intonation performance, it needs to serve the music, not the band's ego. Last night, in a non-festival venue, it felt too often like we were witnessing the latter, not the former.
That said, when the focus was on the music, Colin Meloy and his compatriots worked magic. Smartly ordering the title songs from their marvelous latest album, The Crane Wife, into a chronological suite, the Decemberists elicited shivers of heartbreak. There weren't many moments as perfect, although the first encore, "Red Right Ankle," was similarly sweet. Otherwise, the set list was generally upbeat, emphasizing the more raucous aspects of the band's repertoire: "July, July!," "16 Military Wives," "Oh, Valencia," etc. At one point, Meloy launched into a crowd-inspired cover of the Clash's "Waiting for the Clampdown," a moment he said he was sure to regret.
But it all culminated in "A Cautionary Tale," which featured several band members snaking through the crowd, playing elementary school percussion (tambourine and the like). Fine until they stopped to re-enact a battle a la Tolkien, recruiting bystanders to act as fellow elves and so on. Where that came from, I haven't a clue, but its grand-scale arbitrariness left a sour taste. Metblogs loved it, but the Decemberists weren't always about the Apocalypse. Without them, who'll sing of rent-boys on the bus mall or dreams of being an architect?