Music / Reviews
Review: The Decemberists, O2 Academy Bristol
Portland, Oregon’s The Decemberists returned to Bristol’s Academy venue to tour their latest and seventh album ‘What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World’.
The night’s support came from sequin-clad Londoner Serafina Steer. The harpist played a selection of tracks from her debut as well as tracks from her upcoming album. Her music is similar to artists such as Bat For Lashes as well as the inevitable Joanna Newsom (without the squeakiness). She managed to keep the waiting crowd fairly quiet and received a fairly large applause at the end of her set.
Lead Decemberist Colin Meloy took to the stage alone, clad in a sharp suit, to start the evening with the appropriately titled ‘The Singer addresses his audience’. He was then gradually joined by the rest of his smartly attired band to finish the rest of the song.
The band then played a series of folk pop ditties from their recent albums. This was nice enough but then the band launched into the Deep-Purple-esque prog-rock riffing of 2009’s ‘Hazards of Love’ album. This ability to show different styles was one of the things which kept the evening interesting, away from the more middle of the road areas of the band’s latest album.
The Decemberists played a lengthy set with selections from throughout their career. Tracks from this year’s album only made up about a third of the evening, as well as quite a few from 2005’s Picaresque. The great hooks and melodies of ‘Calamity Song’, ‘The Rake’s Song’ and ’16 Military Wives’ got the audience singing along. During the latter, Meloy conducted the onlookers during a mass clap-a-long which excited the mild mannered crowd as ‘downstairs’ beat ‘the balcony’ in a clap off.
The audience certainly got their money’s worth when the band returned for a second encore, epic vaudeville sea shanty ‘The Mariner’s Revenge Song’. This was a fun and thrilling finale to the night, with the full capacity audience screaming along as if they were being swallowed by the whale mentioned in the song.
For a middle aged band, fifteen years and seven albums into their career, the Decemberists still remain a fun and exciting live prospect who can easily sustain your interest whilst playing a two hour set.
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