The Decemberists avoid hazards in stellar show
Bank of America Pavilion, Boston, June 9, 2009
Reviewed by Jeffrey B. Remz
The Decemberists aren't afraid to march to their own muse. The band, which released the story disc "The Hazards of Love" in March, played the 17-song suite in its entirety from start to finish in the first of two sets. No between song patter. No chatting it up. Not your typical move. Give the Portland, Ore.-based band a tremendous amount of credit for going where very few bands tend to tread these days. They make music on their terms with a themed disc (this is not the first time, of course, because "The Crain's Wife" was based on a Japanese fairy tale) and a willingness to dole it out to their fans.
The story of "The Hazards of Love" has something to do with star-crossed lovers William and Margaret and a rake who kills his three children, but they exact revenge.
Keyboardist/organist Jenny Conlee set the stage with the opening strains of Prelude and the band eventually coming on stage, concluding an hour later with The Hazards of Love 5.
In between was an often very very exhilarating body of music. The lack of talk was appropriate because doing so would have destroyed the pacing.
The band definitely stretched it out musically going from their traditional folkie sound sometimes with heavy, prog and hard rock guitar riffs from Chris Funk and lead singer/band leader Colin Meloy. There were musical interludes and two backing singers, (Becky Stark of Lavender Diamond as the ethereal Margaret and Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond as the queen) who assumed prominent roles. Worden proved to be an especially exciting performer, belting it out with a powerful voice amidst some high kicks and twirling, adding a lot of energy. Stark was a softer singer, sometimes a bit too soft. Songs, such as the title track and The Waiting Comes in Waves resurface several times during the presentation, albeit with different lyrics.
The clear highlight was The Rake's Song where five band members beat drums while Meloy sang away. It was an utterly powerful moment during the set that had the crowd going.
The Decemberists took a break after the hour-long opening set. Rightfully so, because there was no way they could have dug into their regular repertoire immediately.
The Decemberists reached into their catalogue in the second set for such more pop-flavored songs as Oceanside and the catchy hit Valencia One of the best songs was the poppy, but bigger sounding vocally and musically Sleepless, a song from the "Dark Was the Night" compilation put together by The National for a "Red Hot & Blue" release.
Meloy was a solid, powerful lead singer throughout with his voice mixed high. He also was an engaging front man with a good sense of humor. The sound from the entire band was very clean and clear throughout.
There were a few questionable moments, particularly the way too long The Chimbley Sweep where the band got a bit silly. Meloy wandered into the crowd and let a few fans played guitar with him taking a photo of one. Another fan came on stage to play guitar in Funk's place. He played a not very skilled slide using a beer bottle, though the sound actually wasn't too bad. But it went on and on, and it would have served The Decemberists better to have played another song instead.
It was also unclear why Worden and Stark came back out to do a very solid take on Heart's Crazy On You. Again, a Decemberists song would have served the show just fine.
Yet, they more than made up for that closing with a rousing anti-wawr song, Sons and Daughters with the entire crowd standing and singing in unison a chant for peace "Hear all the bombs fade away." It was one more big gesture in a night where just about everything worked.
