You have to respect a band that dresses nicely in vests, jackets, and ties to go work… only to be later eaten one-by-one on stage…!
What a
terrible show, what a
beautiful show from Portland’s
The Decemberists, when they came to Minneapolis to play the sold-out and acoustically shiny Northrop Auditorium on the University of Minnesota campus—thankfully, the
beautiful parts were very much so, and the couple
terrible parts were
very purposely meant to be that way.
 Alvvays
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Toronto indie-pop band
Alvvays was on their first night as support act and had reason to feel the slightest bit awkward as singer Molly Rankin mentioned it being their first time playing to a seated audience. The five-piece played most of their
eponymous debut (out now on Polyvinyl) working in nine songs in just forty minutes.
 Molly Rankin
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During tuning for their song ‘Dives’, Rankin muttered to herself jokingly, "play 'Freebird', man." If only she was aware that Decemberists' singer
Colin Meloy is "famously" a self-ordained board member of “
MACOF (Musician Against Calling Out Freebird)” as we found out at his last solo gig in town.
Alvvays managed to play all four released singles, ending with current radio hit, ‘Archie, Marry Me’, with guitarist Alec O'Hanley playing on Rankin's so-called "tiny girl guitar".
 The Decemberists
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Amidst a giant lighted backdrop very similar to the quilt-like pattern of the new album’s cover (
What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World out now on Capitol Records),
The Decemberists confidently strode out to the regal trumpet intro music before singer Meloy started gently with the hushed and folky ‘The Singer Addresses His Audience’ before it progressed into the expansive full band sound.
Reserved but joyous applause met the next song, ‘Calvary Captain’, causing Meloy to mention, “So, so, so very quiet... unnerving.” That quiet was quickly broken as everyone stood and clapped along for ‘Down by the Water’, from 2011’s
The King is Dead.
A purposefully simple ditty called ‘Hank Eat Your Oatmeal’ was created as Meloy strummed at his kitchen table, trying to convince his young son to eat—that same song (as we also heard at Nov 2013 Meloy gig) would morph into ‘Calamity Song’, also from 2011 (much better song, though both are catchy).
New songs were a little limited with ‘The Wrong Year’ going back to back with single, ‘Make You Better’ before the band launched into their folk-prog epic, ‘The Island’, with standout performances from instrumentalist Chris Funk and accordionist/keys player, Jenny Conlee. Even background singers were top notch as
Kelly Hogan and
Nora O’Connor Kean (both artists in their own right) kept a steady hand on the vocal rudder.
 Colin Meloy
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Before ‘Los Angeles, I’m Yours’, Meloy reminisced about the band first jaunt into town, at the now-closed
400 Bar, and managing to pinch a picture of
The Replacements’ Bob Stinson while there. After an errant Applebee’s comment went the wrong way, Meloy righted himself by saying how much he enjoying the previous night’s dinner at the James Beard award-nominated,
The Bachelor Farmer, which mostly redeemed him.
Stage lights went from all red for ‘Won’t Want for Love’ to all blue for crowd favorite, ‘The Rake’s Song’, with the latter song turning into an extended clap-a-long and ’16 Military Wives’ was a fun call-and-response contest between different parts of the venue.
“We’re going to play you the very worst song I’ve written in my entire life”, Meloy mentioned, before going into ‘Dracula’s Daughter’, to then stop to a hushed crowd, save someone from the upper balcony, shouting, “…sucks!”, which drew immediate laughter.
 Setlist
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The encore was first teased with the ready for springtime song, ‘June Hymn’, then was a direct hit to the gullet, with their other folky mega-epic, the bouncy ‘The Mariner’s Revenge Song’ which stretched some twenty minutes. People were prompted to scream at a certain part ¾ of the way into the song, and the reaction was not unwarranted as a large cut-out profile of a whale ambled on stage to slowly eat each of the band members in a row, to the crowd’s shrieking delight.
Luckily, as stage lights rose back up after the song, band members seemed unscathed and ready to carry on, in the next town. So, what a
terrible show,what a
beautiful show - the two half-baked songs purposely provided good comic relief and the audience was
really treated to a nattily-dressed band, returning as strong as ever, after a few year’s hiatus.
)
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