The Hazards of Love
So yeah, it's been a busy month, but I finally made the time to sit down and finish writing about the Decemberists concert I attended a couple of weeks ago (specifically, the 14th of August, one day after my birthday). I put this behind a cut, because I love my friends and this is long. You have been warned!
I cannot tell in words how awesome this show was, and how glad I was to go! It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and my face was definitely rocked off O.o
So first off, we were all getting ready to go--Anne, and Brian, and me, and Anne asked me her opinion on which skirt to wear, and I suggested green because of the whole forest theme of the album. And I wore green, too--I put on my green-with-silver-stripes skirt, and wove fake ivy into my hair (with Anne's help, of course!) so with all this green going on, Brian also threw on a green t-shirt. And Mike showed up, also in a green shirt! (When we arrived at the Byham, it turns out Julie was also in green-though, alas, Jamie was not!)
So the seats Mike got for me and him were fantastic--a little off to the side, but front row first balcony, so we had a great view. Only once was my view obscured, but I'll get to that later.
There was an opener, The Heartless Bastards. They had a good sound to them, and I liked their music, and the band members had a great dynamic going, but unfortunately I couldn't hear their lyrics at all. That said, it was enjoyable and got me warmed up for the main attraction, which is about as much as I need from an opener.
So as The Decemberists are promoting their latest album, The Hazards of Love, they spent the first half of the concert playing that album straight through, because it is essentially one continuous hour-long rock opera. Seriously, there is no point where the music stops at all. So they just kept playing, in one long continuous thread of music. And oh my gosh, play it they did!
I went into this concert hoping they'd use some sort of visualizations, and they did. The backdrop was a scrim with draped gauze behind it, looking vaguely like stylized tree trunks, and they projected various colors and patterns against it--soft greens (for the forest), watery blues (for Annan Water), bright reds and yellows, and they had these blaring white floor lights that swung back and forth at certain repeated motif chords. And Becky Stark, as Margaret, was dressed in a gauzy pale green dress that looked sort of hippy-ish, sort of nature-child, with white flowers in her long hair. When the blue stage lights were on her, she glowed like a luna moth. She stepped lightly across the stage, in pale tights (and as far as I could tell, either shoeless or wearing white ballet slippers), every inch a delicate, hopeful young lover on the verge of womanhood.
Speaking of visualizations, I did note one thing--the background was mostly greens at the beginning, up until "A Bower Scene," and the different sound balance that comes with a live performance drew my attention to the back beat, which was very like a heartbeat. I noticed it starting during "A Bower Scene," just as fragmented, organic reds were starting to trickle into the greens--and the look, combined with the heartbeat, made me think of the baby growing inside Margaret. It was little things like that, that made the live experience so engaging.
I said that the music was constant--and this is true, though there were brief musical interludes between the more intense pieces, and instrument switch-offs, and a roadie who kept darting on stage to hand someone a guitar or lift the bass cello into place, or whatever.
Shara Worden, the Queen of the Forest, was every inch Margaret's opposite--dynamic, physically intense, she danced onto the stage in vicious angles, throwing her knees up and her arms out. She wore a billowing black dress that cinched at the hem, the waist and the wrists, with a wide, silver-sequined collar. And she belted her songs. When she was on the stage, she commanded--and the audience went nuts, rising to their feet to sing along to her heart-thumping "Repaid."
I found an online review of the first live "Hazards of Love" performance, and the reviewer described "The Rake's Song" as "a percussion-and-chant orgy." This was pretty true. I was hoping it would be every inch as foot-stomping and hand-clapping as it was in the album, and it was more! There were seven people on the stage for that song, and five of them were on percussion, plus two guitars. There was a starkness to it that was perfect for the Rake--bold as brass, only without the brass. Just telling it like it is. And the audience, again, went nuts.
"The Abduction of Margaret" and "The Queen's Rebuke/The Crossing" were pretty intense, as they should be. "Annan Water" was heartfelt, and the stage was all cast in watery blues. "Margaret in Captivity" was the only point where my vantage (First balcony right, front row) wasn't perfect--Margaret was way in the back, stage right, and when she had her solo moments pleading for William, she lifted her arms and was backlit beautifully. I caught it the first time by leaning a little, but then she moved a bit more to the right, and for the second time, all I could see was her outstretched hand. That said, from what I did see of it, it was a pretty cool effect.
"The Hazards of Love 3 (Revenge!)" was done with neat effect, despite the lack of the children actually being anywhere on stage. The vocal track was played, but the people on stage still played the instruments--and they used jerky, strange movements, reminiscent of wind-up toys or cymbal-banging monkeys. Creepy and cool.
And the end of "The Wanting Comes In Waves (reprise)" was as incredible a climax as one would want from a live show, the perfect final nod saying "this isn't the album, this is MORE than the album." Those final chords were bashed out over and over again, with Colin waving frantically for the others to keep going, to keep playing--boom boom boom boom BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!
My face was officially rocked off.
And then it wound down with the sweet, tragic "Hazards of Love 4" duet. And this is, I must say, the first concert I ever went to where the audience gave a standing ovation before the intermission. But how could we not give a standing ovation at the end of the self-contained "Hazards of Love"? It was a show in itself, and I would've been pretty content just with that. It was one of the most amazing live music performances I have ever seen O.o
They did play another pretty awesome set after that--none of the songs I was really hoping for, but still pretty fun. Most of them were from their earliest albums, which I am less familiar with; there were also a couple of newer songs in there, which nobody is familiar with :) I wonder what their next album's going to be like! Considering that it seems that The Hazards of Love just came out...
Anyway, they played "Oceanside" (a new song), "July, July!," "The Sporting Life," "Billy Liar," "Shankill Butchers" (with the stage bathed in bright red, no less!), "Down by the Water" (another new song!) and "O Valencia!" Then colin Meloy shared with us what he considers to be the worst song he ever wrote, "Dracula's Daughter." He appended it with the most wonderfully tongue-not-far-from-cheek description of his creative failure, which included dropping his crow-feather quill, knocking over his bottle of absinthe, and God weeping a single tear full of rainbows and unicorns, that flooded the whole world and killed everybody. That was the moment when I realized that Colin Meloy knew exactly how his fans perceived him, and hammed it up accordingly, and winking slyly.
Then they wrapped up with the guest singers, Becky and Sharon, coming back on stage to do a cover duet of the Heart song, "Crazy On You." It was pretty rockin' awesome! Though I was confused that they would sing a cover for their last song. But of course, they probably knew they'd be asked for an encore, so they came back and did another new song, "Summer comes to...?" (Yeah, I totally got the set list from a website, so sue me! These were pretty songs, but I did not write them all down, especially the ones I didn't know!). Then they did a crazy interactive version of "A Cautionary Song," with Colin up on stage narrating as the "Decemberists Traveling Family Players" (or some similar title) danced up and down the aisles banging on a cacophony of drums and tambourines, and enacted a mini, semi-improv play about the founding and defense of Fort Pitt from the British and French military. They did it right in the aisles and in one of the wider rows just behind the Director's Circle, falling on top of audience members, etc. It was great! I was so amused!
So, yeah...a great time was had by all! Faces were rocked off, music was enjoyed, epic love tragedies were danced out. I only wish I could've seen them do it again, like going back to the movie theater and watching a movie again. But I know this is one of those "once-in-a-lifetime" things, and so I'll leave it at that.
...unless they put out a DVD... O.o
I cannot tell in words how awesome this show was, and how glad I was to go! It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and my face was definitely rocked off O.o
So first off, we were all getting ready to go--Anne, and Brian, and me, and Anne asked me her opinion on which skirt to wear, and I suggested green because of the whole forest theme of the album. And I wore green, too--I put on my green-with-silver-stripes skirt, and wove fake ivy into my hair (with Anne's help, of course!) so with all this green going on, Brian also threw on a green t-shirt. And Mike showed up, also in a green shirt! (When we arrived at the Byham, it turns out Julie was also in green-though, alas, Jamie was not!)
So the seats Mike got for me and him were fantastic--a little off to the side, but front row first balcony, so we had a great view. Only once was my view obscured, but I'll get to that later.
There was an opener, The Heartless Bastards. They had a good sound to them, and I liked their music, and the band members had a great dynamic going, but unfortunately I couldn't hear their lyrics at all. That said, it was enjoyable and got me warmed up for the main attraction, which is about as much as I need from an opener.
So as The Decemberists are promoting their latest album, The Hazards of Love, they spent the first half of the concert playing that album straight through, because it is essentially one continuous hour-long rock opera. Seriously, there is no point where the music stops at all. So they just kept playing, in one long continuous thread of music. And oh my gosh, play it they did!
I went into this concert hoping they'd use some sort of visualizations, and they did. The backdrop was a scrim with draped gauze behind it, looking vaguely like stylized tree trunks, and they projected various colors and patterns against it--soft greens (for the forest), watery blues (for Annan Water), bright reds and yellows, and they had these blaring white floor lights that swung back and forth at certain repeated motif chords. And Becky Stark, as Margaret, was dressed in a gauzy pale green dress that looked sort of hippy-ish, sort of nature-child, with white flowers in her long hair. When the blue stage lights were on her, she glowed like a luna moth. She stepped lightly across the stage, in pale tights (and as far as I could tell, either shoeless or wearing white ballet slippers), every inch a delicate, hopeful young lover on the verge of womanhood.
Speaking of visualizations, I did note one thing--the background was mostly greens at the beginning, up until "A Bower Scene," and the different sound balance that comes with a live performance drew my attention to the back beat, which was very like a heartbeat. I noticed it starting during "A Bower Scene," just as fragmented, organic reds were starting to trickle into the greens--and the look, combined with the heartbeat, made me think of the baby growing inside Margaret. It was little things like that, that made the live experience so engaging.
I said that the music was constant--and this is true, though there were brief musical interludes between the more intense pieces, and instrument switch-offs, and a roadie who kept darting on stage to hand someone a guitar or lift the bass cello into place, or whatever.
Shara Worden, the Queen of the Forest, was every inch Margaret's opposite--dynamic, physically intense, she danced onto the stage in vicious angles, throwing her knees up and her arms out. She wore a billowing black dress that cinched at the hem, the waist and the wrists, with a wide, silver-sequined collar. And she belted her songs. When she was on the stage, she commanded--and the audience went nuts, rising to their feet to sing along to her heart-thumping "Repaid."
I found an online review of the first live "Hazards of Love" performance, and the reviewer described "The Rake's Song" as "a percussion-and-chant orgy." This was pretty true. I was hoping it would be every inch as foot-stomping and hand-clapping as it was in the album, and it was more! There were seven people on the stage for that song, and five of them were on percussion, plus two guitars. There was a starkness to it that was perfect for the Rake--bold as brass, only without the brass. Just telling it like it is. And the audience, again, went nuts.
"The Abduction of Margaret" and "The Queen's Rebuke/The Crossing" were pretty intense, as they should be. "Annan Water" was heartfelt, and the stage was all cast in watery blues. "Margaret in Captivity" was the only point where my vantage (First balcony right, front row) wasn't perfect--Margaret was way in the back, stage right, and when she had her solo moments pleading for William, she lifted her arms and was backlit beautifully. I caught it the first time by leaning a little, but then she moved a bit more to the right, and for the second time, all I could see was her outstretched hand. That said, from what I did see of it, it was a pretty cool effect.
"The Hazards of Love 3 (Revenge!)" was done with neat effect, despite the lack of the children actually being anywhere on stage. The vocal track was played, but the people on stage still played the instruments--and they used jerky, strange movements, reminiscent of wind-up toys or cymbal-banging monkeys. Creepy and cool.
And the end of "The Wanting Comes In Waves (reprise)" was as incredible a climax as one would want from a live show, the perfect final nod saying "this isn't the album, this is MORE than the album." Those final chords were bashed out over and over again, with Colin waving frantically for the others to keep going, to keep playing--boom boom boom boom BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!
My face was officially rocked off.
And then it wound down with the sweet, tragic "Hazards of Love 4" duet. And this is, I must say, the first concert I ever went to where the audience gave a standing ovation before the intermission. But how could we not give a standing ovation at the end of the self-contained "Hazards of Love"? It was a show in itself, and I would've been pretty content just with that. It was one of the most amazing live music performances I have ever seen O.o
They did play another pretty awesome set after that--none of the songs I was really hoping for, but still pretty fun. Most of them were from their earliest albums, which I am less familiar with; there were also a couple of newer songs in there, which nobody is familiar with :) I wonder what their next album's going to be like! Considering that it seems that The Hazards of Love just came out...
Anyway, they played "Oceanside" (a new song), "July, July!," "The Sporting Life," "Billy Liar," "Shankill Butchers" (with the stage bathed in bright red, no less!), "Down by the Water" (another new song!) and "O Valencia!" Then colin Meloy shared with us what he considers to be the worst song he ever wrote, "Dracula's Daughter." He appended it with the most wonderfully tongue-not-far-from-cheek description of his creative failure, which included dropping his crow-feather quill, knocking over his bottle of absinthe, and God weeping a single tear full of rainbows and unicorns, that flooded the whole world and killed everybody. That was the moment when I realized that Colin Meloy knew exactly how his fans perceived him, and hammed it up accordingly, and winking slyly.
Then they wrapped up with the guest singers, Becky and Sharon, coming back on stage to do a cover duet of the Heart song, "Crazy On You." It was pretty rockin' awesome! Though I was confused that they would sing a cover for their last song. But of course, they probably knew they'd be asked for an encore, so they came back and did another new song, "Summer comes to...?" (Yeah, I totally got the set list from a website, so sue me! These were pretty songs, but I did not write them all down, especially the ones I didn't know!). Then they did a crazy interactive version of "A Cautionary Song," with Colin up on stage narrating as the "Decemberists Traveling Family Players" (or some similar title) danced up and down the aisles banging on a cacophony of drums and tambourines, and enacted a mini, semi-improv play about the founding and defense of Fort Pitt from the British and French military. They did it right in the aisles and in one of the wider rows just behind the Director's Circle, falling on top of audience members, etc. It was great! I was so amused!
So, yeah...a great time was had by all! Faces were rocked off, music was enjoyed, epic love tragedies were danced out. I only wish I could've seen them do it again, like going back to the movie theater and watching a movie again. But I know this is one of those "once-in-a-lifetime" things, and so I'll leave it at that.
...unless they put out a DVD... O.o