It was a rainy November evening as the Decemberists took the stage inside Boston’s Orpheum Theatre, along with fellow Portland band Loch Lomond, for a night of dulcet folk rock. Even President-elect Barack Obama made an impromptu appearance, although in the wake of his galvanizing election night speech, appeared well… rather stiff.
Performing for the “most attractive audience” he has ever seen, the Decemberists’ singer, Colin Meloy, and his bandmates entertained the audience with anecdotes, theatrics, political and inspirational mantras, and, of course, epic, melodious tunes that elicit chills.
Hits such as “July, July!” and “O Valencia!” got the audience clapping and snapping along to the beats, and the crowd’s singing to “Valerie Plame” inspired Meloy to quip,“I would say that you’re hired, but the union bill would be astronomical!”
Playing up the infamous Boston/New York rivalry, Meloy taunted the crowd in his introduction to “O New England.” “Speaking of Boston,” he said, “We’re gonna do a song about New York…oh, that stung a little, huh?”
The mood shifted when the band performed “Culling of the Fold.” “Enough of this pansy pop,” Melloy told the audience, “We’re going into music about killing people now!” As he sang about dumping a body in a ditch and leaving his limbs naked, Meloy ran around the audience, standing on chairs and, once back on stage, concluded the song with a playful hanging of himself with his microphone chord.
Making an appearance at the end of “The Perfect Crime #2,” a life-size cardboard cutout of President-elect Obama danced across the stage with multi-instrumentalist Jenny Conlee (accordion, piano, organ, keyboard, backup vocals), and then proceeded to crowdsurf it’s way across the audience, aided by a collection of helpful hands.
Meloy, a vocal supporter of Obama, drew a comparison to the politician’s aphorism, citing that in the competing singing during “16 Military Wives” between the audience members in the floor seating and those in the balcony, there is no winner, just as there are no red or blue states - just one audience, which was encouraged to chant “Yes we did!”
This chanting continued as the audience waited impatiently for the band to return to the stage for an encore, consisting of a duet version of “Raincoat Song” between Colin Meloy and John Moen (drums), which was dedicated to all the people who stood outside in the rain for the show, and a moving rendition of “Sons and Daughters.” The stage quickly filled up as the rest of the band returned, along with the members of opener Loch Lomond, and audience members who were encouraged to join them. Dedicated to all the people who will now go out and make change, in light of Obama’s election, the entire theatre sang along “Here all the bombs fade away,” taking away a piece of encouragement from the Decemberists.
-- Rebecca Schiller [November 26, 2008]
