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Last month I went to check out The Decemberists at Messiah College. I went into the show as a new listener: I wasn't too familiar with all their tunes, except that I picked up their album Picaresque about a week before (not to mention that I watched the Colbert Report when Chris Funk tore it up during the Decemberists vs Stephen Colbert Guitar Solo Challenge).

The show was in a gymnasium (Brubaker Auditorium) with a large stage. Above the stage, four large round lights flashed colors of the various lights that shined on them. Behind the stage was a huge curtain with a scene out of some partially told story - I remember a big cliff with an old building or two, and a waterfall - pretty cool stuff (yes, my description is lame).

Most of the tunes they played were not from Picaresque (not that I was expecting them to be). All the tunes were very enjoyable, despite the fact I hadn't heard them before. The setlist, as taken from bt.etree.org, follows:

1. Intro music
2. Shiny
3. The Island, Come and See, The Landlord's Daughter, You'll not Feel the Drowning
4. Banter (where are we tonight?)
5. July, July!
6. Banter (Slinky on stage)
7. The Crane Wife (pt.1 only)
8. The Bachelor and the Bride
9. Song for Myla Goldberg (slow version)
10. The Perfect Crime 1/(What Goes On by The Velvet Underground)/The Perfect Crime 2
11. O Valencia
12. A Cautionary Song (with the battle of Gettysburg)
13. Encore break
14. The Tain (I-VI)

There were a number of things about The Decemberists' performance that made the show extremely entertaining:

• The introductory music was a recording over the speaker system. If I had to guess, I'd say it was the Canadian National Anthem. The song kept building, until the end, when The Decemberists entered from the side of the stage - by this point the crowd was totally psyched (in my defense, I have never knowingly heard an anthem from Canada; whatever was played was a freaking cool introduction).
• Their musicians all played multiple instruments during the night. A few songs dropped into quiet sections where Chris Funk played a fiddle, and the bassist hopped on cello. Similarly, Colin Meloy hopped on the drums, and member Jenny Conlee alternated between the keyboard and accordion.
• Their lead songwriter, Colin Meloy, changed to a different acoustic guitar between every song (and also an electric at one point). There was a rack of them hidden somewhere, and he either was rotating between 2 or 3, or he had about 15 different ones.
• Best of all, they had the complete attention (and control?) of the audience - at one point the drummer hopped into the audience for a Civil War reenactment while the lead singer narrated!

Messiah College is local to the Mechanicsburg area, and the crowd at the show really made it feel like I was home. If I had to guess, I'd say most people catching the show were in the 18 to 25 yrs age group. In an odd way, I was reminded of the handful of punk rock shows I'd been to during high school. What a good time it was.

The Decemberists' show was incredibly cool, and I have no doubt this is a band I'll be listening to in the years to come. I have since picked up their 2006 album, The Crane Wife. I've really been digging The Crane Wife 3, O Valencia!, and The Perfect Crime #2. Another one of my favorites (from Picaresque) is The Sporting Life.

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