By: David Schultz

Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Matt Groening have never been shy about taking shots at Seth McFarlane as they seem to take great offense when their shows are discussed in the same conversation as Family Guy. Pointing to their ability to create humor around the themes of a single story, the creators of South Park and The Simpsons find Family Guy’s scattershot barrage of non sequitur jokes cheap and simplistic and not up to their standard. If Colin Meloy were so inclined, I would imagine he could look around and feel similarly irked when The Decemberists are likened to their fellow bands. Merriweather Post Pavilion may have cool songs about summer fashion and comatose lions and Veckatimest has tons of dreamy, hypnotic melodies but neither has any narrative structure or thematic continuity; they are just a compendium of short stories. Joining Green Day in restoring credibility to the concept of the concept album, The Decemberists created a larger-than-life rock opera with The Hazards Of Love, populating their fairy tale universe with a handful of slightly more than one-dimensional characters.

Unlike The Crane Wife, which had critics falling all over themselves to lavish praise upon Meloy and The Decemberists, The Hazards Of Love wasn’t draped in the same adoring cloak. While not unfair, the criticism leveled at the album - it’s verbose, it’s overblown, it’s excessive – ignored the reasons why everyone seemed to like The Decemberists in the first place. A moving and enthralling album, The Hazards Of Love is unlike anything else released this year. Last week, before a packed Radio City Music Hall, The Decemberists played their new opus before an enraptured crowd without many frills, opting to leave the theatrics to the imagination. While they didn’t bring a children’s chorus on stage for “The Hazards Of Love Part 3 (Revenge!)” - the image of a youthful chorus happily singing about returning to life to take revenge on their rakish father would have been slightly disturbing – they replicated all of Hazards’ prog-rock frills and neo-classical embellishments. Notwithstanding Lavender Diamond’s Becky Sharp sashaying grandly in a flowing white dress as the heroine Margaret and My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Worden stomping around like the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Karen O as the evil-hearted queen, the imagery and music were allowed to take center stage. Radio City’s normally fine sound had one stumble, during “The Wanting Comes In Waves/Repaid,” Worden’s majestic voice seemed to get lost in spacious theater. Otherwise, there was little left wanting.

Due to curfew issues, Meloy prefaced the second set with an announcement that it would have to be “more rock and less talk.” No worries though, Meloy is quite the chatterbox and couldn’t help engaging with the audience. Prior to a quick rendition of “Dracula’s Daughter,” Meloy pointed out that while most people would opt to play their best songs once they reach Radio City's hallowed stage, he would go against the tide by playing his worst. In addition to recent material like “The Crane Wife 3,” “O Valencia” and “Sleepless,” from the Dark Was The Night compilation, The Decemberists played a healthy smattering from their early catalog. In the midst of a lengthy version of “Chimbly Sweep,” Chris Funk and Meloy became engaged in an oddly structured guitar duel which seemed to be a battle of who could come up with the most unrhythmic solo until Meloy cheated and riffed on The Beatles’ “Blackbird.”

Keeping Worden and Sharp involved, The Decemberists went off the charts, playing “Crazy On You” with the two lovely singers tearing the house down. Unless seeking some sort of irony, Heart is rarely the go-to band for hairraising covers but when presented with two strong-voiced female singers, it’s really not that bad a choice. For the encore, R.E.M.’s Peter Buck, who had played with Robyn Hitchcock earlier in the show, joined in for a cover of “Begin The Begin.” Meloy’s exuberance for playing with one of his professed influences more than made up for the eloquent singer’s struggle with the song’s deliberately deemphasized vocals.

After a respite following their performance at Bonnaroo, The Decemberists will be bringing The Hazards Of Love around the U.S. and Canada for the rest of the summer. In October, they will return to Austin, Texas for the City Limits Festival, bringing their opera back to the city where they first played it live. Ignore whatever pissy reviews you've read. There will come a time in the future when people will make huge deal about The Decemberists playing The Hazards Of Love in its entirety, much like The Who doing Quadrophenia or if Peter Gabriel ever reunites with Genesis for The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. I can't fathom why anyone would wait for it to become a nostalgic event when they can go see The Decemberists play it now.

The above photo, taken by David Atlas, was sent to Earvolution with a request that we share it with our readers. A full set of Atlas' photos, which are quite good, can be found on the MSG site, which you can access by clicking here.

Labels: The Decemberists