The Decemberists - Paradiso, 18 May

Ah, one of the shows I was most looking forward to in Our Insane Pile of Concerts - May 2006. I think we were a bit spoiled since we just saw the Decemberists last November and then they kindly came to Amsterdam, of all places, as the only city to play on mainland Europe before playing some shows (and the All Tomorrow's Parties festival) in the UK. Unfortunately it was also the first European show for them so they were adjusting to time differences and such, but the band was still enthusiastic, lively, and played a show that the crowd would remember.

O and I got to Paradiso just a little after the doors had opened, but it was still nearly empty inside. Very different from when we saw Belle & Sebastian, when there was a line of people waiting before the doors opened and it filled up fairly fast. We sat on the floor near the front and later our friends Steven and Natasja joined us. They didn't know the Decemberists incredibly well, but I was happy at the end to find out they enjoyed the show.

The band came out quite on time, which was good, and Colin immediately introduced themselves as being from Portland, Oregon. Woot! The setlist was:

California 1/Y&B Brigade
Infanta
Soldiering Life
Sporting Life
Apology Song
Both Go Down Together
Summer Song (new)
Legionnaire's Lament
Lost at Sea
Los Angeles
Engine Driver
Bachelor and the Bride
Dreamt I Was an Architect
16 Military Wives
Chimbley Sweep

Encore: I Was Meant for the Stage

I was quite surprised that they chose CA 1 to start with. It was near the end of the show in Cologne and it's the last song of Castaways, plus the first half is rather slow, so it seems more of an ending song. But when they kicked into Infanta, the energy was palpable.

Colin introduced Apology Song as being a true story and then talked about bikes a bit due to bikes being so popular in the Netherlands. He assumed (correctly) that we probably get our bikes stolen quite often, but then pondered that maybe people in the audience were actually the bike stealers, so he asked for a show of hands of everyone who's had a bike stolen, and then a show of hands of who's stolen a bike, to which I saw a group midway back raising their hands, heh. Get 'em!

Petra Haden, who played violin on the Decemberists' last tour, was very absent this time, which we were sad about because she was a lot of fun last time. I yelled out "Where's Petra?" once, but no one heard or answered me, but later I asked again and Colin replied (away from the mic) "She's not here" which, um, yeah, I could see that. I asked "Why not?" and he said, with a weird kind of weary tone "Long story." Hrm. It felt like something was up, but I hope there's not any animosity between the band and Petra.

The one new song was introduced as, I think both Summer and Summer Song, like they aren't sure about the title yet, but it was quite nice. I'm sure it must be the song which Willamette Week reported Jonathan Safran Foer playing some percussion on. As they started it, Colin warned us that they'd never played it live, and John, the drummer, added, "Or jetlagged," so, yes, this was going to be promising. Of course, it was fine.

There was an amusing moment before one of the last songs when Colin realized that he, Nate, the bassist, and Chris, the other guitarist, were all about to start in different keys and they fixed it but John then said "No, try it out and see what it sounds like, I'm curious." It of course sounded like crap. They blamed the jetlag once again. Also before Los Angeles, John was spacing out a bit and wasn't ready to play because Colin was going on about all the bike paths in Amsterdam and the city they were going to sing about has no bike paths. Colin started to play, but John didn't start because he was sitting there trying to think of what city it was, heh. Jetlag! Obviously.

Chimbley Sweep was an awesome, long closeout to the main set. After the first two verses, Colin jumped off the stage and came out into the crowd, practically right in front of me. He went out as far as his cord would allow, making a little opening in the audience. He dropped to his knees, then eventually played on his back, which is when O got this shot. I peeked over the shoulder of the girl standing in front of me to find Colin lifting the bottom of her jeans a bit to look at her All-Stars. He then said "Double-tied?" and the girl went yep. I dunno what that was about, like he was surprised that people still double-tie their shoes? He eventually stood back up and asked if anyone around him played guitar. Someone near the back of the crowd opening said her friend did and a girl came reluctantly forward and Colin managed to pass off his guitar to her. She kept shaking her head though and going like "What am I supposed to play?" Against her protests, Colin brought her up on stage and then I saw that in the meantime Chris found a guy to play his guitar. The two guest musicians played for a bit before being let go back into the audience, the girl getting a hug from Colin. The band then did their sit down thing where Colin sends each band member to sleep and then has the crowd crouch down and asks us all to be very quiet. They didn't play the song in Cologne, so I'd never seen this for myself, but I had heard about it. Eventually the band stood back up, they quietly sang the verse with Jenny being the widow, and then the crowd all jumped up when the song went into the chorus. It was brilliant and the audience played along well.

The encore started with Colin alone, but as the song built up, the rest of the band wandered back out. The song and the show ended with a bit of instrument bashing, not destruction really, but Colin used his guitar as a bow on Nate's bass and Chris was swinging his guitar around by a few broken strings. Everyone but John left and then John gave a big finale before leaving as well, waving at the crowd.

During the show, O was attempting to get Colin's attention by tossing notes onto the stage asking for 2 minutes of the band's time after the show for a photo project he is starting. We were only two people back from the stage, so the first note he just folded and tossed over Colin's monitor. That didn't get his attention, so he took out the note he'd already folded into a paper airplane and flew it onto the stage. Colin still didn't say anything though until just after We Both Go Down Together, when he said, in sort of mock-surprised tone, "Oh look, there's something at my feet. I suppose I should look at what it is." So he picked up the airplane one and read the note out loud. He paused a bit at O's name, not being sure how to pronounce it, and then at the end O had put "from the guy with the cartoon dinosaur on his shirt" and Colin looked at O and was like "Oh yeah, cartoon dinosaur, you can't miss that." He then admired the note, how O had gone through the trouble to print it out and all, saying there obviously was some effort there (though really, it's just that you can't read O's writing, so it's best for him to print it) and Chris said "You pass notes, they're gonna get read in front of the class." But then they moved on with no answer to what O was asking, so O asked a bit later for an answer, to which Colin just said "We'll think about it." Hrm. After the show, we hung around the hall for awhile and everyone but Colin was packing up their instruments. O talked to Jenny who said they might end up watching the band that was playing upstairs, so he might be able to catch them then. We hung out for a bit with this couple, the girl was from Seattle and the guy from Portland. The couple came with us upstairs when the band members all disappeared, and we found Chris, Jenny, and John at the back of the audience in the kleine zaal. O eventually got up the courage to ask Chris if he could take his photo for a project, and Chris kindly agreed. They went out into the area at the top of the stairs where there was more light, more space, and less noise. O got his photos, and a couple of people came up and got Chris' autograph on their tickets. Then Jenny and John came out and they looked very tired and like they were leaving, but O stopped them and asked them if they'd take part in his project, and they said yes, which was so nice because they looked ready to fall over. After the photos, and signing the other people's tickets, they headed off with a smile and a wave. Three out of five wasn't so bad, though it would have been good to have gotten Colin's photo, but they said that he'd left already because he was so tired.

We then talked a bit to the girl from Seattle and I felt I had a lot in common with her, like the way I feel about living here, but also feeling like I don't want to go back to the US. We talked about the lack of music scenes in Holland, she especially misses the plethora of bands that exist in the NW because she's a musician and she'd love to find a band to play with, but she feels like for most people in bands here it's just a hobby, not something to dedicate much time to, and she would want to take it more seriously than that. Anyway, she was really nice and it was just cool to meet some people like that on top of really enjoying the show.

More Northwestness coming up with the Presidents on Wednesday, and then... finally... after months of delay... Sleater-Kinney. Which I'm sure will just fucking rock.