The Triangle

Issue date: 10/14/05 Section: Entertainment

The newest Decemberists album, Picaresque, features ridiculous pictures of the band dressed as trees, athletic directors and mre. Furthermore, it was just reissued on vinyl with bonus tracks.

Music maintains a major hold on the attention of the youth of the world, and it seems that with the kinds of theatrics that certain bands put on during shows, they well deserve that attention. Such a fine example is the band that I witnessed on Oct. 8, The Decemberists.

Entering the Electric Factory, located at 421 N. 7th Street, I noticed the venue was an entirely open center with a second tier circling around the floor. Up top, fans were enjoying themselves with idle chatter and beer as the opening band played a sort of mellow-country style of music. Most of the opening act was spoken through and was of a very ignorable quality where it felt like the kind of music one would consider "background noise". The Sons and Daughters failed to make an impression due to this light sound.

When sound bites and stage hands alluded to The Decemberists appearance on stage, cheers and claps ensued. When the band finally came out, they danced and prowled across the stage with strange little gongs being clanged, violins playing and tambourines jingling. When Colin Meloy, the lead singer, guitarist and song writer for the group, made his appearance on stage, the crowd surged with an energy only describable if witnessed. Finally the band members began to play; they opened up with a slightly mellow song that jumped straight into an energetic collision of sounds.

In between each song, Meloy would seize the audiences attention to say something about the song, his fellow band members or just offer some comic relief to get a rise out of the audience. He did so by making a sort of schoolyard tattle-tale poke at a member of the audience lighting a cigarette or pointing out a particularly tall member of the audience. In addition, he improvised a quick little tune after a fan screamed, "I love you Colin," amidst the intently listening crowd. After this little recognition, Meloy played a song all by his lonesome, jokingly claiming that his band had abandoned him and that the song was an autobiographical piece entitled "My Mother Was A Chinese Trapeze Artist." After the solo performance, the band returned enthusiastically throwing themselves straight into a song as they each took their places.

Continued...

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