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Day Two Hundred Seventy

Wow. Just wow. People had been telling me about the Decemberists for years now, and they were always on my list of bands to "get around to." It seems they ended up getting to me first, but I guess that's okay sometimes. I don't know exactly what I was expecting going in, but it wasn't what I got, by any stretch of the imagination. It was better. Somehow, I wasn't expecting Colin Meloy to have such fantastic stage presence. I knew that they had a multitude of multi-instrumentalists, but we got fiddle, slide guitar, dobro, accordion, organ, both acoustic & electric guitars, and both electric & stand-up bass. Oh, and drums. Musically, they were astounding.

As posted online after the gig, here's what they played:

SETLIST - 4/18 - University of Iowa - Iowa City, IA

Oceanside
Calamity Song
Rox in the Box
Rise to Me
The Soldiering Life
The Sporting Life
The Wanting Comes In Waves/Repaid
Grace Cathedral Hill
All Arise!
Down by the Water
This Is Why We Fight
16 Military Wives
The Chimbley Sweep
--
The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned)
The Mariner's Revenge Song
--
June Hymn


The highlight of the evening was, without question, "The Wanting Comes In Waves/Repaid." It was the only time all night that the band went fully electric, including Colin, and there was so much going on musically that the audience simply stood, mesmerized.

All told, 7 songs off of the new album, which was good, because that was the stuff I knew the best. Nothing off of Crane Wife, which I thought was odd, and the rest of the night, well, the rest of the night was an adventure because it was all new to me. I bought 3 CDs:

- The Hazards Of Love
- Picaresque
- Her Majesty, The Decemberists

Between those 3, and the fact that R. had Crane and The King Is Dead, we ended up knowing most everything by the end of the night. The drive from Iowa City to Des Moines let us play through Hazards twice exactly, which was kind of cool.

They had Sara Watkins, of Nickel Creek fame, playing with them as a part of their touring band, so it was cool to see her play & sing. Justin Townes Earl opened for them, which was interesting, because there was absolutely no promotion regarding his appearance. His set was spectacular, though, just him and a fiddle player. Seems like I'll have to pick up some of his stuff too.

Needless to say, I spent the better part of today looking up some of the tabs from the new record. Fun stuff that I started to get a bit of a handle on after a while. Now I just need to pick up the 5 Songs EP, and Castaways and Cutouts, because a few of the tunes they played were off of those records.

There's something awesome about going to a big show, or a small show with a big show feel. The gig was in the IMU Main Lounge, which is this big old ballroom type of place. Great room to see a show in. Then again, I'd see this band anywhere.

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