(no subject)
Yay, I am gone for months and only come back to post about the Decemberists show that I went to tuesday night with ameadowlark. I would have posted this to my blog, if that had actually uh... worked out.
Anyway, the show was at the Bank of America Pavilion, a venue I'd never been to before. I'd definitely go back again. The things I'd heard of this place: "the sound sucks" & "oh it's such a great place to see a show" - I agree with the latter but not the former. The sound was excellent last night. Much better than the last two Decemberists shows I've seen, so I was completely satisfied on that part.
The venue is great and I can imagine it's incredible on a nice night, or even a night where it's not so DAMN COLD. I was shivering almost all the way through the show (like TEETH chattering), but it was still worth it, probably better than sweating my ass off, which I normally do at shows.
The Decemerbists themselves were friggen awesome. They always are, so I expected no different. The Hazards of Love was as incredible live as I thought it would be, and their second set included a few songs I specifically hoped to hear ("Eli, the Barrowboy" !!!, "July, July", "Summersong", "Sons & Daughters", "The Chimbley Sweep") and a few songs I've never heard live.
So, because they played The Hazards of love from start to finish, they have Lavender Diamond's Becky Stark and My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden touring with them. I hate to say it, I didn't like them on the stage with the band. The band played incredibly, of course, and Colin sang and rocked out like he always does, but it seemed they took a back seat to the ladies - they were dancing around, Becky Stark undulating and floating her arms around like she was some kind of... well, ok, river's daughter from a fairy tale. Shara (who is incredible, I love her voice) did actually perform "The Queen's Rebuke / The Crossing" exactly as she should have - for someone so small in stature, she did put forth a very "queen of the trees" attitude.
But - I would not like a band with those two ladies as lead singers dancing around like that. It's just not the kind of thing I dig. I'm not even sure I would go see the Decemberists live again if they were to tour with them (I don't think that's going to happen, but just sayin'). The vibe wasn't the same, the energy was different.
The second set was, of course, shorter, and Colin did the whole "dracula's daughter" bit that I've now seen three times... they had a random, probably drunken bit with a towel dance that was amusing and pulled some lucky bastards out of the audience to play around with their guitars.
The only downside of the evening were the assholes sitting in front of us. Long story short, two of the guys were assholes and one of them was the rudest mofo I've ever encountered in public - but I believe in instant karma, so they'll get theirs somehow. ;)
Anyway, the show was at the Bank of America Pavilion, a venue I'd never been to before. I'd definitely go back again. The things I'd heard of this place: "the sound sucks" & "oh it's such a great place to see a show" - I agree with the latter but not the former. The sound was excellent last night. Much better than the last two Decemberists shows I've seen, so I was completely satisfied on that part.
The venue is great and I can imagine it's incredible on a nice night, or even a night where it's not so DAMN COLD. I was shivering almost all the way through the show (like TEETH chattering), but it was still worth it, probably better than sweating my ass off, which I normally do at shows.
The Decemerbists themselves were friggen awesome. They always are, so I expected no different. The Hazards of Love was as incredible live as I thought it would be, and their second set included a few songs I specifically hoped to hear ("Eli, the Barrowboy" !!!, "July, July", "Summersong", "Sons & Daughters", "The Chimbley Sweep") and a few songs I've never heard live.
So, because they played The Hazards of love from start to finish, they have Lavender Diamond's Becky Stark and My Brightest Diamond's Shara Worden touring with them. I hate to say it, I didn't like them on the stage with the band. The band played incredibly, of course, and Colin sang and rocked out like he always does, but it seemed they took a back seat to the ladies - they were dancing around, Becky Stark undulating and floating her arms around like she was some kind of... well, ok, river's daughter from a fairy tale. Shara (who is incredible, I love her voice) did actually perform "The Queen's Rebuke / The Crossing" exactly as she should have - for someone so small in stature, she did put forth a very "queen of the trees" attitude.
But - I would not like a band with those two ladies as lead singers dancing around like that. It's just not the kind of thing I dig. I'm not even sure I would go see the Decemberists live again if they were to tour with them (I don't think that's going to happen, but just sayin'). The vibe wasn't the same, the energy was different.
The second set was, of course, shorter, and Colin did the whole "dracula's daughter" bit that I've now seen three times... they had a random, probably drunken bit with a towel dance that was amusing and pulled some lucky bastards out of the audience to play around with their guitars.
The only downside of the evening were the assholes sitting in front of us. Long story short, two of the guys were assholes and one of them was the rudest mofo I've ever encountered in public - but I believe in instant karma, so they'll get theirs somehow. ;)