{"id":869,"date":"2017-11-27T02:30:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-27T02:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=869"},"modified":"2026-06-27T02:32:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T02:32:47","slug":"the-decemberists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/?p=869","title":{"rendered":"The Decemberists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

September 2005, House of Blues, Orlando, Fla.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I was a kid, I discovered bands through the radio. I was fortunate to live in a town where the college radio station \u2014 WVUM from the University of Miami \u2014 played great music (when it wasn\u2019t covering UM baseball games, which it was terrible at). I found out about the Cocteau Twins, Housemartins and Mighty Lemon Drops from VUM, among others, and was always on the hunt to hear about more<\/p>\n

Terrestrial radio nowadays is no place to hear about new music (though satellite radio does pretty well), but it was through old school radio I learned about The Decemberists. NPR did a feature on the band for the release of its album Picaresque<\/em>, explaining the historical aspects of the band\u2019s lyrics while playing song snippets from the album. Inventive and odd, Picaresque<\/em> is also melodic and smart and remains a timeless listen (and in the Internet age, NPR would become a great source for finding about upcoming bands).<\/p>\n

Third albums, which Picaresque<\/em> was for The Decemberists, are a telling point for the ultimate longevity of most bands. A good debut can get you the sophomore effort (what\u2019s the adage \u2014 you spend a lifetime making your first album and six months making the second), and if you survive the sophomore slump, the third album should see a band using its recent experience to advance and grow. A third album can make music a career for bands, and in some cases elevate the band to new heights \u2014 just ask Radiohead (OK Computer<\/em>), The Clash (London Calling<\/em>), U2 (War<\/em>), Def Leppard (Pyromania<\/em>), Pixies (Doolittle<\/em>) and Bruce Springsteen (Born To Run<\/em>). Those are some of the best albums ever made by anyone.<\/p>\n

And while Picaresque<\/em> is no London Calling<\/em> (for the record, nothing is like London Calling<\/em>), it\u2019s a fine effort. My wife and I loved the album, and although the band didn\u2019t come down to South Florida (some bands never do make it down there), a two-hour trip to Orlando was easy enough to make.<\/p>\n

The band filled the medium-sized stage at the House of Blues, a venue which seemed a bit tiny for this show considering the ample audience. Colin Meloy, the leader of the Portland band, came out and opened with the sizable \u201cCalifornia One\/Youth\u201d and \u201cBeauty Brigade,\u201d a nine-minute opus from the band\u2019s first album Castaways and Cutouts<\/em>. The song is not at all a foot-stomper, and it seemed like Meloy was testing the audience to see how engaged they planned to be (perhaps he wanted to ease into the show). The subsequent \u201cBilly Liar\u201d got the crowd more stirred up, while the excellent \u201c16 Military Wives\u201d had the show moving at an elevated clip.<\/p>\n

What makes The Decemberists a good live band has a lot to do with its fans \u2014 they come in expecting dynamic, quiet tunes and hang on each inflection of Meloy\u2019s voice. Songs such as \u201cEli, The Barrow Boy\u201d and \u201cSong For Myla Goldberg\u201d don\u2019t work unless the audience shuts the hell up, which they do, only to rear up when the peppy \u201cThe Sporting Life\u201d rolls in. Pace is everything in a show, and on this night The Decemberists were up to the challenge. The band also did a nice job incorporating songs from its entire catalog, which you don\u2019t always see at shows.<\/p>\n

The set ended with \u201cI Was Meant For The Stage,\u201d a slow burn from Her Majesty<\/em>, and the band walked off stage to riotous approval. What happened next I can only describe as the best encore I have ever seen.<\/p>\n

For the next part, Meloy said, he would need audience participation, noting at a certain point he wanted everyone to scream like they were being swallowed up by a whale. Jenny Conlee then started up the accordion and \u201cThe Mariner\u2019s Revenge Song\u201d was off. A nine-minute song about a man\u2019s quest to find and kill the scoundrel who caused his mother\u2019s death, \u201cMariner\u2019s\u201d is lush and varied, employing mandolin, stand-up bass, floor tom and guitar.<\/p>\n

About two-thirds through, just as Meloy sings “And before us grew\/The angry jaws of a giant whale,\u201d a massive paper mach\u00e9 whale jaw came roaring on stage, eliciting a mighty roar of laughter and anguish from the crowd. It was a delightful din of literary art meeting music. The song\u2019s end, a fast-paced mix of instruments (which reminds me of the end of Camper Van Beethoven\u2019s \u201cTania\u201d), wrapped the evening in a nice bow.<\/p>\n

What started quietly became a musical frolic by the end \u2014 you always want to leave the audience wanting more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

September 2005, House of Blues, Orlando, Fla. When I was a kid, I discovered bands through the radio. I was fortunate to live in a town where the college radio station \u2014 WVUM from the University of Miami \u2014 played great music (when it wasn\u2019t covering UM baseball games, which it was terrible at). I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":870,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[121],"class_list":["post-869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-concerts","tag-the-decemberists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=869"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":871,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869\/revisions\/871"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}