Portland, Ore., band The Decemberists paid a visit to D.C.'s 9:30 club last Monday night, their second show in the District in less than a year. Frontman Colin Meloy led his sextet through a stunning set, drawing mostly from their latest full-length, "The Crane Wife," proving once and for all they're at the top of their game.
Opening the sold-out show was Lavender Diamond. Their songs sounded like campfire tunes on acid, where the bonfire spits sparks and the shadows dance too. Vocalist Becky Stark pranced and hopped up and down in place, clapping and swinging her head back and forth to the pendulum beat as a veritable pixie.
The stage was decorated like the set of any self-respecting Japanese opera: large red lanterns, a huge banner covering the back wall depicting Japanese huts, hills, horizon and a large white crane. The crane is assumed to be the Crane Wife, the folktale that lends its name to the album. As the story goes, a poor man finds a wounded crane and nurses it back to health. After releasing the recovered crane, a mysterious woman comes to the man's door, they fall in love, get married and things get complicated.
Before the band came on, a recorded voice identifying himself as Christian Fodenvensel instructed the audience to introduce themselves to each other, "marvel at the architectural acumen involved" in creating the venue, "consider the untold scores of enslaved Nubian eunuchs who built these walls, stone by stone." Ah, the Decemberists. Consummate showmen.
The band came onstage right on schedule, wasting no time in starting the show with "The Crane Wife 3," the first song on the new album. Meloy played the bouzouki, an instrument that is part mandolin, part guitar. Emanating from the instrument were amazing sounds - low and twangy, thick and full of body. Afterwards, he switched to guitar for most of the show.
The band played all the best songs from the "Crane Wife," as well as highlights from previous records, like "We Both Go Down Together" and "16 Military Wives" from last year's "Picaresque." Meloy led the audience in a sing-a-long during the latter song, dividing the house into dueling factions.
An interesting performance point is how versatile the band is, whether it's indie-pop orchestrations, stun-guns-set-to-rock epics (like one part of "The Crane Wife 3," which could be mistaken for the best Rush song never written), or Meloy singing solo ballads, like "Red Right Ankle." From themes of nostalgic lost love to gruesome violence, the band was always on and always sincere.
The Decemberists don't have much more to prove. From here on out, it's just victory laps. And if you missed last week's show, just listen to it on National Public Radio's "All Songs Considered," available online at www.npr.org/allsongs.
