Ranting to /dev/null

The Decemberists with Norfolk & Western and Lou Barlow (9/27/04)

Last night I went to Webster Hall and heard Norfolk and Western and Lou Barlow of Sebadoh open for The Decemberists. I showed up abotu half an hour after doors, which was about an hour before the first set. I was right up by the stage, leaning on the stage-right extension into the crowd. Excellent view.

Norfolk and Western was pretty unremarkable. Adam Selzer plays guitar and sings, and Rachel Blumberg plays the drums (she's also the drummer for The Decemberists). Not all that much to report. Pretty forgettable, I thought. It wasn't until the end of the set that the room was half full.

Lou Barlow was a little more interesting, but only for a while. It was just him, his guitar, and a synth machine, which he periodically used to good effect. However, the crowd was starting to get a bit restless during his set, and by the end only about the first ten rows of people were paying any attention. He knew this, and we knew he knew it. By the end of his set, the room was full, and you could hear the buzz of conversations almost as well as you could hear him. His first song was pretty good, and contained the line "I want to be the one you fell and would fall for," which I liked. He ended with a song about a stray "kitty" that he adopted. Yeah. Now with 50% more sap for your listening pleasure.

Then, right at 10:30, The Decemberists took the stage. You could immediately tell the crowd came for them. Barlow actually said "Thank you, Decemberists audience" as he left the stage. This was not an overstatement. Nor was it entirely inappropriate, as the move away from suckage started by Barlow was completed with all the fixings by The Decemberists. The lyrics have a nineteenth century flavor to the point of being downright Dickensian. Not in terms of the actual poetry - we have moved beyond that, praises be - but the vocabulary and content matter is quite self-consciously archaic. I mean, come on. How many pop bands can you name that feature an accordian? A few I'd wager, but not very many.

The band is obviously better live than on their albums (aren't they all?), but the sound was pleasantly similar. They didn't take massive departures from their recorded material, which was kind of nice. They upped the tempo in "Leslie Anne Levine", an obvious crowd pleaser featuring a twelve-string guitar for fullest-sound goodness, and it rocked even more than it does on the album. They played a few songs from their upcoming album, which they finished recording last week. The song "The Sporting Life" is about playing soccer in a YMCA league at the behest of one's parents and being humiliated by the expeience. The album's not due out till March, unfortunately.

For the encore, which took quite a bit of cheering to provoke, featured just Colin coming back out. Then, for what would be the last song, "I Was Meant For the Stage", the rest of the band came out one by one and joined in, until everyone was back out, rocking. Then, just as they finished the lyrics, they went nuts. Colin took his guitar, ran out to the extension I was leaning on, and started writhing around, strumming with his feet, contorting himself and making a lot of noice. The girl playing the keyboards or accordian was sitting on the floor, blowing into one of those little keyboard/kazoo thingies. The bassist had his string bass lying on the floor and was alternately tapping the body of the bass with his bow or actually striking the strings with his hands and bow. The rhythm guitarist was grinding the strings over another instrument, making noise with both. I don't know what the hell the drummer was doing. Then they were done. Cool.

Next up: Wilco, 10/5, at Radio City Music Hall. Awesome. After that, Crooked Fingers is playing Maxwell's in Hoboken on 10/19. Rumor has it that certain Chattanooga folk are going to be in town then, so it looks like we've got plans.