Decemberists! Amsterdam!

Once again, Steven tipped me off on a show I'd want to see very much. The Decemberists will be playing Paradiso on May 18. Yay, they're coming back as promised! So I promptly bought tickets today. I can't wait, they are so much fun, but May is so far away... What is kind of bizarre is that this show only 9 days before we see Sleater-Kinney in Belgium, so it nearly recreates the plans we had last November when I would have seen the same bands 10 days apart, but then S-K cancelled. Except this time we see the Decemberists first, and we don't have to travel to see them.

While looking up the info on the Decemberists show, I came across a couple of other bands I want to see who are coming to Paradiso, so I actually bought tickets for two shows today. There would have been 3 shows to buy for, but one isn't on sale til next weekend. The other tickets I bought today are oddly enough for the band that opened for the Decemberists in Cologne, Two Gallants, who made quite an impression, so it'll be great to see them again. Then the Presidents of the USA are coming back to Amsterdam and I definitely want to see them after the hyper, stage-diving show they played last year.

We have now accumulated tickets for 7 concerts, not counting the Presidents of the USA, stretching from February 10 to May 27. The pile consists of:

Caesar - Patronaat, Haarlem, February 10
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Melkweg, February 19
Two Gallants - Paradiso Kleine Zaal, February 28
Death Cab for Cutie - Melkweg, March 8
Calexico and Iron & Wine - Tivoli, Utrecht, April 26
The Decemberists - Paradiso, May 18
Sleater-Kinney - Botanique, Brussels, May 27

I think we're set for the beginning of 2006. Rock on.

Oh, and I came across this photo today of Chris Funk and Colin Meloy of the Decemberists from a show in May 2005 in Boston. It is all kinds of awesomeness. Check out the whole album, this guy took wonderful photos.