The Decemberists @ The Greek Theater (8.12.11)

The Decemberists are a band that I have waited aeons to see. It seems every time they come to town I'm gone or otherwise indisposed, so finally after all the waiting, I managed to see them at the Greek Theater in the hills above LA.

The Greek is a venue that I have a particular affinity for. It's scenic outdoor venue and when I saw Wilco there years ago the sound was absolutely impeccable. I had always wondered if it was the Wilco's sound guy or the venue that made it so good. On friday I finally got my answer. Both. Before going any further I should mention that I had three audio engineers with me at the time. I had set up this concert and venue as "the sound is going to be amazing!!!" From my perspective the sound was ok for the first half and by the end it was pretty good. I hope they don't think I was exaggerating. I was surprised actually at the how bad the sound was considering I knew what it could be like. If I didn't have such a good experience before I probably would have felt it was pretty good.

On a sad note, The Decemberist are currently touring without Jenny Conlee. She is currently taking time off to fight breast cancer. Her presence was greatly missed at the show and I wish her the best. To cover her parts a multi-instrumentalist Sara Watkins (Nickle Creek) was brought in. It would seem that they stayed away from the older material possibly because of Jenny's absence. As a result I felt as if the show was more a Colin Meloy solo show where he played some new Decemberists songs.

I felt that the bands energy for most of the evening was low, and most of the songs they played were a bit mellow. Their antics were limited to Colin making a few jokes between songs. One particular anecdote was talking about the "worst song he ever wrote that he now has to play at every show." He then played a song about "Dracula's Daughter" which lead into "O Valencia!." It makes you wonder if they're getting a bit tired of playing what I can only assume on radio stations out of LA is a hit. Sadly there is a huge gap in what gets played on the radio out here. Don't get me wrong there's always "Morning Becomes Eclectic," but it hasn't been the same since Nic Harcourt left. One new song they did well was January Hymn. I haven't figured out what it is about that song I like, I just do.

So during their first encore the band came out and played the infamous "Mariner's Revenge Song." This song really showed how fun the band can be even if they were kinda low key most of the night. There was pageantry, audience participation and animated russian style dancing. At least I think it was Russian... They are the Decemberists and all.



According to my friend Gabrielle I didn't get ripped off because they played it. All in all a good (albeit moderately disappointing) show, but I look forward to seeing them again when Jenny's back and feeling 100%. Here's wishing her a speedy recovery.

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Here's an additional video from their first encore. Proving once again that the drummers are always the weirdos of the band.

Those Darlins @ The Echo (7.29.11)

I've been offline for a bit, sorry I didn't fake my kidnapping or have someone post something in my stead. I'm sure that would have been more interesting. I do however have a good excuse. I was here:


Which I know is kinda vague, but lets just say it was someplace south of the US and kinda awesome. To business...


Went and saw Those Darlins at the Echo in LA. There were two opening acts, Motopony and White Arrow. Motopony was kinda bland poprock with a talented (yet still bland) vocalist who was clearly full of himself and some kinda substance. Not sure what it was but he spent half his set trying to hug the audience. My favorite "Pony" band will always be these guys although they are now Phantom Buffalo. White Arrows was actually a great surprise as they are a local band that wasn't even billed for the show. Reminded me a bit of Vampire Weekend meets the Strokes meets some form of dance/ funk or something. Based on their cool factor, hopefully they won't hate that description... Since it was the first time I'd run into these guys, I didn't catch then names of their songs to call out. I can say that their cover of the boss' "I'm On Fire" was an upbeat danceable version of the original that definitely put a smile on the faces of the older people in the crowd/ ironic 80's fans. Isn't that why we all like 80's music anyway?

Those Darlins were every bit as fun, strange, weird and wonderful as I had expected.


And yes... Their drummer way in the back is inexplicably dressed as a boy scout... I had gathered my understanding of what they might be like live from a few youtube vids and a photo posted by the Old 97's. Sufficed to say, they delivered, I was thoroughly amused by the moderate insincerity in Jessi wandering up on the front of the stage giving people weird looks. Almost intentionally over the top... I thought they were as nuts as they could be, that is, until the end of show pigpile roll around on stage...



but more of that later.

I have heard both of their albums and found myself really wondering what band was going to show up... but in a good way, not like Badly Drawn Boy, who can swing from genius to a-hole not even night to night, but song to song... When I listened to the album I thought that maybe this band or this one would show up. Having brought friends unfamiliar, it was a bit nerve racking. The first song or two was upbeat, but then they abruptly dropped tempo. At that point I panicked. Fortunately they quickly recovered and that brought on a hipster moustache riot.


Which coincidentally is the title of a song I'm now writing. Unfortunately, I was way to slow in writing this due to a late night return from show, early AM surfing, back injuries etc. So as a result I'm struggling with the a bit more of the specifics on songs played than I would have liked. They of course played their hits off the latest album (screws get loose and be your bro). What made me happy though was that they hit alot of their first album too. While they used to tour with uke AG and bass, they now are touring with 2EG and Bass. This change in instrumentation makes everything a bit more rocky so all the old stuff was a cool variation of the original. One song that stayed in my head was wild one. I don't recall if it was their encore or last song of their first set, but shakin on over was just a fun cover...

I really tried to bring my camera to this gig, but couldn't get the signoff on it. Instead I brought my point-n-shoot and tried to shoot flashless. Due to the complete lack of light I did at the end decide to be a dick and shot one with a flash. There was a guy right up front that was pelting them all night with a flash, so I figured one wouldn't hurt...



These gals are a wildly fun show, great on stage and can pull off their songs live. I highly recommend checking them out.