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Review & setlist: Boston crowd enjoys a May-Decemberist relationship at Roadrunner
The Portland, Oregon quintet revisited older material and previewed some to come at Roadrunner Thursday night.
The six years that have elapsed since their last release and the fact that their newest one won’t be available until next month did nothing to discourage throngs of Decemberists fans from flocking to Roadrunner for the second night of their A Peaceable Kingdom tour.
With a total of eight (by my count) musicians onstage, the Portland, Oregon band performed a reasonably generous 15-song set that stretched back to its second LP and reached forward to one that won’t ship until June 14, “As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again.” (With a title like that, no one would mistake it for being by anyone else.)
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The concert commenced with a three-song acoustic set, which itself began with the just-released single “All I Want Is You.”
This is a decent song, but as its title indicates, a not particularly imaginative one, borrowing it seems a bit from “Just the Way You Are.”
However, it includes a few lyrics with which owlish leader Colin Meloy seems to poke some fun at himself, such as “don’t want stunning wordplay” and “don’t want run-on phrases.”
Even if this wasn’t the best selection of the evening, it immediately revealed that Meloy is still in fine voice as he prepares to hit the mid-century mark later this year. (Not sure what was up with that stache, though.) And props to the sound crew, which kept the band sounding crisp, clear, and potent.
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The band’s ever-increasing catalog and the inclusion of some longer pieces — including the magnificent 11-1/2-minute “The Crane Wife 1&2” and the brand new 19-minute epic “Joan in the Garden” — meant that several albums were represented by only a single track, and not necessarily the best one.
One of these was their masterful 2005 album “Picaresque,” from which the crowd-pleasing, singalong-inducing “Sixteen Military Wives” (which wouldn’t have been my one choice) was extracted.
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In addition to the flawless five core members, the performance benefitted greatly from the presence of singer/multi-instrumentalist Lizzy Ellison, who records her own material under the moniker Cardioid.
Her vocal portion on “The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid” received a well-deserved ovation.
Although the expanse of the lone encore “Joan in the Garden” apparently caused some people to make their way to the door early, it and the four other new songs surely convinced many to pre-order “As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again.”
(One of these four was “Long White Veil,” which Meloy claimed they had just played live for the first time. The setlist that appeared on the band’s Facebook page from the previous night’s show in Kingston, N.Y. would beg to differ.)
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At one point the latter half of the set, Meloy declared, “Boston, you’ve always been so kind to us” before conferring with his bandmates to determine the first venue that they played here was. They seemed to land in agreement on T.T. the Bear’s.
“But Roadrunner is our new home,” he then added.
That continuing kindness showed no sign of abating last night. Here’s hoping that Meloy and company return later this year — to Roadrunner or wherever — once fans have had the chance to feast on the whole of “As It Ever Was…”.
Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t at least mention the opening act, Ratboys. I saw them less then a month ago when they headlined the 300-capacity Portland, Maine venue SPACE. Last night, with the influx of punctual attendees, they played to probably 10 times that number. That they might be headlining before a crowd of that size before too long is not out of the question.
Setlist for The Decemberists at Roadrunner, May 2, 2024
1. “All I Want is You”
2. “Shankill Butchers”
3. “The Bachelor and the Bride”
4. “Don’t Carry It All”
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5. “Burial Ground”
6. “The Crane Wife 1 &2”
7. “Traveling On”
8. “The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid”
9. “Long White Veil”
10. “Make You Better”
11. “Severed”
12. “Sixteen Military Wives”.
13. “Oh No!”
14. “A Beginning Song”
15. “Joan in the Garden”
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