The Decemberists get sweaty, weird and create ‘beautiful world’ of folk-rock at Meijer Gardens

The Portland band’s first Meijer Gardens show came amid sultry weather that didn’t slow the Colin Meloy-led bunch down as it churned out nostalgic, audience-pleasing songs spanning the group’s career.

 

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In an episode of their hugely popular podcast, “Stuff You Should Know,” hosts Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant explore the topic of nostalgia.

The episode, “Nostalgia is Not the Most Toxic Impulse”, directly addresses humorist/author John Hodgman’s oft-repeated idea that nostalgia is “the most toxic impulse of all” driving most modern acts of evil, including systemic social injustice and terrorism.

In picking apart the psychology and sociology of nostalgia, Clark and Bryant spend a good portion of the show exploring the nearly unparalleled nostalgic powers of music.

Anticipating and then attending The Decemberists’ sold-out performance Monday night at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park offered me the opportunity to unpack my own complicated feelings of mortality and (sort-of-but-not-really) yearning for the past.

Granted, it’s not as if we’re talking about sentimental tickets like The Monkees or Hall & Oates here.

But for an indie devotee of a certain age and disposition, The Decemberists are a wistful callback to an era pre-dating hashtags and mortgages, when knee socks were (somehow) acceptable and a spontaneous shot of Jager with friends didn’t necessitate the better part of a week for recovery. What I’m trying to say is, I was once in my early-to mid-20s. And when I was, this Portland, Ore., folk-rock five-piece was breaking into the indie scene and carving out its fanciful place as the well-read, cheeky cool nerds of the bunch.

In many ways, nostalgia is the appropriate frame for a recap/review of The Decemberists’ lengthy, three-act show. After all, the band’s nearly-20-song set list often hearkened back to bygone eras of courtesans (“Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect”), urchins (“The Chimbley Sweep”) and bayonets (“The Island: Come & See/The Landlord’s Daughter/You’ll Not Feel the Drowning”).

UNUSUAL SONGWRITING AND A HUGE REPERTOIRE FROM WHICH TO CHOOSE

But their’s is not a warm and fuzzy feeling of recall. As vocalist/lyricist/showman Colin Meloy quipped to a rapt crowd, an awful lot of the band’s quirky tunes include a drowning — or any number of dark conclusions, really.

It’s an unusual approach to modern songwriting that has netted the band a respectable audience in its 16-year career, even as some music listeners and critics turn away from the distinctive and sometimes divisive result.

With seven albums and nine EPs from which to draw, The Decemberists — joined on-stage Monday by two female back-up singers, one equipped with an acoustic guitar (or bass) — balanced older tunes (“O Valencia!” and “16 Military Wives” from the mid-aughts) and newer hits (“Cavalry Captain” and “Make You Better” from last year’s “What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World”). The evening even included the encore’s revelation of a song so new, that my Internet sleuthing couldn’t reliably turn up a name. Speaking of which: Remember when you couldn’t Google the name of a song based on its lyrics? Those were the days.

For some, nostalgia unfairly elevates the past at the expense of the present. Hence John Hodgman’s condemnation of the emotion.

But I saw the Decemberists in a sweaty, packed room at The Intersection in May of 2005. It was weird and wonderful. I was young and without much baggage and I danced and I maybe even cried and I definitely stayed up late and after-partied. Hell, I probably even worked the following day with little recourse.

Eleven years later, I can easily say Monday night’s show was better. The band is tighter and the arsenal of songs is stronger. Meloy has sunk his teeth into his role as frontman (see the brief roundup of stage quips below as example) and the on-stage chemistry is more natural than before.

Some things remain the same. The closing number? It’s still a goofy/rollicking, crowd-participatory rendition of “The Mariner’s Revenge Song” from 2005’s “Picaresque”. And the temperature? Still sweaty. So, so sweaty.

Past, meet present. It’s all good.

Singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus of Virginia opened the show with a 30-minute set that included tracks from her 2016 release “No Burden.”

STAGE BANTER/HIGHLIGHTS

Below is a grab-bag of Colin Meloy and company’s finer stage quips and moments.

– “We’re from Portland, Ore., a place that does not have fluoride in its water — you brain-washed Grand Rapidians looking for your Pokemons.”

– Introducing “January Hymn” as a song about winter and hearing the groans of the crowd who sweltered in the 85-plus-degree sun: “Really? This is preferable? We’re of a different tribe.”

– In spinning a yarn about the history of fur trappers in Grand Rapids, who would “go fishing for eels in the River Grand,” Meloy introduced a “traditional song that is in your bones, people” before launching into an acoustic version of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams.”

– “This is from an album that is celebrating its 10th birthday this year. It doesn’t look a day older than four,” Meloy said, introducing the song “The Crane Wife 3” from 2006’s “The Crane Wife.”

– Meloy insisted that he doesn’t usually sweat but that the extreme heat on Monday had forced a drop of sweat to roll down his face. “I’ve never felt more rock ‘n’ roll in my life,” he quipped.

– “There’s a lot of sugar in there,” after consuming a mouthful of dry Cheerios from a box lifted from an audience member in the front row.

– Standing at the lip of the stage and leaning into the crowd: “I love how security here is basically a bunch of native grasses. Be careful. That hydrangea will eff you up.”

– During “Chimbley Sweep,” Meloy and his bandmates playfully sent up the rock star trope, trading the weakest guitar riffs ever heard, mocking the supposed spontaneity of an obviously well-rehearsed stage gag and acting out a jousting routine using guitars in lieu of horses. The shtick concluded with Meloy successfully imploring the audience to lay down on the ground before once again springing to life for the conclusion of the song.

– The addition of a giant prop whale for the show’s second encore and show closer, “The Mariner’s Revenge Song.”

UP NEXT AT MEIJER GARDENS: Tuesday Evening Music Club’s “G-Rap” show at 7 p.m. Tuesday; Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals at 6 p.m. Wednesday

PHOTO GALLERY: The Decemberists at Meijer Gardens
Photos by Anna Sink

Copyright 2016, Spins on Music LLC