By: David Schultz

Not too long ago, The Decemberists threw a scare into the fans that made the literate bunch from Portland, Oregon a small indie sensation: they signed with a big, evil corporate label that was surely going to ruin the idiosyncratic nature of the band and make Colin Meloy write commercial pop songs. A funny thing happened though while Capitol was supposed to be destroying the band, they let them retain all their quirkiness and bookish leanings and helped them score a critical success with The Crane Wife, which appeared on numerous “in-the-know” top 10 lists alongside indie-Gods like TV On The Radio and The Hold Steady. With the euphoria of Barack Obama’s election still faintly buzzing among the five boroughs, The Decemberists returned to New York City for a Wednesday night show at the boxy Terminal 5.

With Colin Meloy looking slightly like a hipper and less deranged version of Dwight Schrute, The Decemberists look more like a group you expect to populate the basement of a grad school library as opposed to one that sells out clubs like Terminal 5. The odd little group from the Pacific Northwest doesn’t shy away from their brainy side: many of Meloy’s wonderfully descriptive songs would stand alone as lyrical poetry or, with a little fleshing out of the characters, the most bizarrely morbid fairy tales this side of the Grimm Brothers.

For those unfamiliar with the band, The Decemberists tell tales of the sea that would make Coleridge and Melville raise their glasses in a hearty toast and their romanticized narratives of suicide, murder and uxoricide (killing one’s wife – thank Wikipedia, not me, for knowing that word) are heartwrenching in their depth and exposition. Despite the somewhat somber subject matter, The Decemberists’ shows are amazingly upbeat affairs, in no small part due to Meloy’s utterly engaging personality and stage demeanor. Following Meloy’s lead, the crowd pogoed up and down to “Chimbley Sweep” and swayed back and forth to the strains of “The Mariner’s Revenge Song.” Antics aside, the songs are nicely plotted and get you moving. “O New England” moved along on a two chord amble reminiscent of Bob Seger’s “Night Moves,” “Perfect Crime #. 2” bounced happily along with a Talking Heads’ influenced beat and “Sons & Daughters” capped off the night with a campfire singalong of “hear all the bombs fade away.”

Due to the cancellation of their scheduled run of shows last year, The Decemberists last played New York City a little over a year ago at Central Park’s Summerstage. Because of the onerous curfew, Meloy’s kept his interactions with the audience to a minimum. At Terminal 5, he was under no such restrictions, humorously instructing the crowd on fire prevention, encouraging anyone who brought a guitar with them to the show to join and chiding keyboardist Jenny Conlee about the potentially somber nature of the set list. His relaxed nature and bantering is a skill most frontmen spend their lives failing to achieve.

The other star of Wednesday night’s show, albeit in absentia, was President elect Barack Obama. Meloy welcomed the crowd by acknowledging The Decemberists share a blue state background with the audience and by the midpoint of the night, a lifesize cardboard cutout of Obama had practically become a sixth Decemberist with the band sending him stage diving and crowd surfing. During the encore break, the savvy lighting tech hit the 2D Obama with the spotlight, prompting a loud chant of “Yes We Can!” until the band returned.

Even without dipping too heavily into The Crane Wife, Meloy and his mates easily filled out a two hour set, splitting time between material from their early albums, Her Majesty, Castaways & Cutouts and Picaresque and that from their ongoing singles series, Always A Bridesmaid. With the exception of their cover of the Velvet Underground’s “I’m Sticking With You,” which is perfectly suited for Conlee’s voice, The Decemberists played the singles that makes the three volumes of Always The Bridesmaid. The caustic and witty “Valerie Plame” served as a nice epitaph for Bush’s soon-to-be-ending stint in the White House but the true gem was “Days Of Elaine” powered along by Chris Funk’s jaunty guitar riff.

The Decemberists will remain on the road in support of the Bridesmaid series throughout the rest of November.

Labels: The Decemberists