Portland indie darlings The Decemberists brought their road show to Oakland’s Fox Theater on Saturday night. The Decemberists are touring in support of their latest release, "As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again."
Fans who have been on board with the alt-nerdy, uber-literary, and sea-shanty’ish Decemberists since their debut in the early aughts will be glad to know singer Colin Meloy and his crew still write songs that are as clever, erudite, and hummable as ever. What’s not to love about a chorus (for the new song “Long White Veil”) that starts with “I married her, I carried her, on the very same day I buried her” and ends with “…but she looked so pale in that long white veil”?
Like the new album, the current tour may not capture any new fans, but it delighted a sold-out crowd of diehards at the Fox. Along with Meloy (lead vocals, guitar), shipmates – I mean bandmates – Chris Funk (guitar, multi-instrumentalist), Jenny Conlee (piano, keyboards, accordion, backing vocals), Nate Query (bass), and John Moen (drums) played tightly and sprightly for over two hours. Multi-instrumentalists Lizzy Ellison and Victor Nash rounded out the richly layered sound. Nash’s trumpet was a particularly notable addition on many songs.
The crowds at Decemberists’ shows are a reliable and fun mix of people who (presumably) include well-versed Jane Austen fans, “Big Bang Theory” acolytes, post-new wavers, and the occasional furry (two were spotted on the floor on Saturday). The fans respond with literati glee when Meloy says things like he did for his introduction to “The Reapers”: “This is another new one. It’s about death and agriculture.”
The show began with a trio of acoustic songs, including a lovely rendition of “All I Want is You” from the new record. The lighting for this mini-set was low, moody, and theatrical, mostly provided by some incandescent lightbulbs framing the players on wheeled-out carts adorned with vines. A floral, old-timey backdrop with distant mountains painted in the distance completed the ambiance.
The lights came up a bit for “Don’t Carry It All” from 2011’s "The King is Dead." For the remainder of the two-hour’ish set, The Decemberists played a variety of songs from their two-decade-plus discography, including Meloy’s all-too-true “I Was Meant for the Stage” from their sophomore album. And yes, they played the delightfully trite “Long White Veil.”
“Thank you, San Francisco, I mean Oakland,” Meloy said at one point. “I always like to be totally geographically correct wherever I am.”
For an encore, the audience was treated to “Joan in the Garden,” which at nearly twenty minutes on the new album is by far the longest cut the band has ever released. Like so many Decemberists songs, it’s a tragedy tinged with history and melancholy, and laced with a plethora of five-dollar words (Imperium; parquet; androgyne.) It’s also a masterpiece of dramatic music. The lights mimicked lightening in the thunderous hard rock segments of this opus. Truly a theatrical coda fitting for a Decemberists show.
Opening act Ratboys delivered a strong set of alt rock. Hailing from Chicago, Julia Steiner (guitar, vocals), Dave Sagan (guitar), Marcus Nuccio (drums), and Sean Neumann (bass, vocals) showed their indie chops with songs reminiscent of Big Thief and Waxahatchee. Steiner’s voice is nearly a dead ringer for the latter’s Kathryn Crutchfield.
Steiner introduced “Elvis is in the Freezer” with a cute story (okay, “cute” is subjective here) about the time her family cat died while she was away: “My mom put the cat in the freezer until I got home. If you’ve ever put a pet in the freezer, you’re not alone.” Endearing!
