Belated Decemberists gig review
534 wordsLast Wednesday Debbie and I braved the threat of snow to drive up to Nottingham to see The Decemberists at Trent University students’ union.
In the morning, I had cleverly put the tickets in my laptop bag, so I couldn’t possibly forget to take them to work. Then, when Debbie picked me up from work, I cleverly decided I wouldn’t need my laptop overnight, so I left bag and computer (and tickets) in the office. Hence, we lost 40 minutes of driving when I realised my mistake, we had to go back, get an office key from Gary, and return to fetch the tickets.
Still, when we got to the venue, half an hour after the time on the ticket, there was a static queue outside, so we had time for a burger from the bar menu at the Travelodge over the road.
When we got into the hall, many students were drinking from two pint plastic cups, and Lavender Diamond were performing. They’re getting some decent press, but I thought they were pretty terrible to be honest.
To whet our appetites for the main event, the PA played us Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, complete with plummy British narration.
The Decemberists were as note perfect as ever. Also, as before, they were evidently having a whale of a time (although they didn’t play the song about the whale). Starting with “Island”, they concentrated on songs from the new album. This was their third visit to Nottingham, and they had been on the Tales of Robin Hood ride again.
The encore was The Chimbley Sweep which, live, begins with a sung verse from Under Milk Wood:
In Pembroke City when I was young
I lived by the Castle Keep
Sixpence a week was my wages
For working for the chimbley sweep.
… deviates from the recorded version by going into a guitar duel between Colin Meloy and Chris Funk, then completely collapses into a chaotic jam in which everyone swaps instruments and mugs like mad… at which point drummer John Moen (on lead guitar at this point) admits that they have no idea how to get out of this one. But they do, and they finally manage to complete The Chimbley Sweep.
Colin finished the show by singing the first verse of The Smiths’ “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want” - to my delight but the blank nonplussedness of many of the young audience members.
Then we got a bit lost in Nottingham’s one way system, emerging on a different junction of the M1 from what we’d intended. No matter. We beat the snow home, but woke to find it had fallen in great quantity afterwards.
The first time we saw the full Decemberists show - (as opposed to their abridged support show for Cake) - was at the Rescue Rooms in Nottingham. The shape and size of that venue made for a wonderfully intimate show, and I count it as among the top 5 gigs I’ve ever been to. This time was still fantastic, but didn’t quite reach those heady heights. Maybe the problem is that as a band builds up a critical mass of material, it becomes impossible for them to play all the songs you want to hear in the time available.