We All Raise Our Voices to the Air! - A Decemberists Thread

[Kevin Davis]

How is the new album holding up for you, Joey? Despite some initial enthiusiasm for a handful of tracks, I find it just isn't hitting the spot for me on repeat listens.

[epilogue]

How is the new album holding up for you, Joey? Despite some initial enthiusiasm for a handful of tracks, I find it just isn't hitting the spot for me on repeat listens.

Probably a bit of the opposite for me, actually. I still think it's one of their lesser efforts overall. But I think I settle more into it and find it more interesting with subsequent listens. It's not a terribly complex record but I find I appreciate that about it more and more. And I like how different it sounds from so much of their other stuff. I really can't imagine it climbs much higher than bottom three for me, though.

And I know we disagree on this point, but I think the second half of the record is really strong. "Sucker's Prayer" through "I'll Be Your Girl" is right where I'm at.

[epilogue]

Having said that, though, I do reach for it far less than any previous "new" Decemberists record and I spin What Terribly World... more often still.

[psychobain]

edit: it's on the first page also, but this video deserves it

[epilogue]

Seeing these guys on Tuesday. Hopefully the weather holds. *fingers crossed*

[epilogue]

Decemberists tonight!

[Kevin Davis]

Have a ball, Joe.

[epilogue]

Have a ball, Joe.

Thanks! I'm super excited. At this point I've seen them so many times that I don't have any real requests/expectations. Just want to hear some good music and have fun. Hopefully they'll play a good amount of the new record. Rusalka, Sucker's Prayer, and We All Die Young are the three I want to hear the most. And if I'm lucky enough to FINALLY get Shiny or My Mother Was a Chinese Trapeze Artist, well then, so much the better!

I've tried not to look at too many setlists, but I saw they were playing Ben Franklin a lot at the beginning of the tour. That would be a highlight, too. I'd love to hear that.

[epilogue]

Past Setlists:

04/18/17: Brooklyn Steel, Brooklyn NY:

Spoiler: show

The Crane Wife 3
The Island
Down by the Water
Lake Song
The Wrong Year
The Gymnast, High Above Ground
Los Angeles, I'm Yours
Wonder
Bandit Queen (including intro verse)
The Queen of Hearts (Martin Carthy cover) (with Olivia Chaney)
We All Die Young
The Abduction of Margaret
The Queen's Rebuke / The Crossing
Make You Better
This Is Why We Fight

Encore:
The Tain
Dear Avery

04/06/15: The Beacon Theater, NYC:

Spoiler: show

The Singer Addresses His Audience
Cavalry Captain
Down by the Water
Calamity Song ("Hank, Eat Your Oatmeal" intro)
Grace Cathedral Hill
Anti-Summersong
Make You Better
The Wrong Year
The Island
Los Angeles, I'm Yours
Carolina Low (Colin Meloy on solo guitar)
The Hazards of Love 1 (The Prettiest Whistles Won't Wrestle the Thistles Undone)
A Bower Scene (Colin Meloy on electric guitar)
Won't Want for Love (Margaret in the Taiga)
The Rake's Song (Jenny Conlee on drums)
16 Military Wives
Dracula's Daughter / O Valencia!
A Beginning Song

Encore:
12/17/12 (Colin Meloy on harmonica)
The Mariner's Revenge Song

06/14/11: Prospect Park, Brooklyn:

Spoiler: show

July, July!
Down by the Water
Calamity Song
Rise to Me
The Bagman's Gambit
We Both Go Down Together
Won't Want for Love (Margaret in the Taiga)
The Crane Wife 3
Don't Carry It All
All Arise!
Rox in the Box
The Rake's Song
Dracula's Daughter
O Valencia!
The Perfect Crime #2
This Is Why We Fight

Encore:
Raincoat Song
When U Love Somebody (Fruit Bats cover)
The Chimbley Sweep (with extended crowd-surfing ho-down)

Encore 2:
June Hymn

01/25/11: Beacon Theater, NYC:

Spoiler: show

California One / Youth and Beauty Brigade
Down by the Water
Rox in the Box
Calamity Song
Red Right Ankle
January Hymn
Don't Carry It All
All Arise!
Won't Want for Love (Margaret in the Taiga)
The Crane Wife 1 & 2
The Crane Wife 3
The Infanta
16 Military Wives
This Is Why We Fight

Encore:
The Chimbley Sweep
The Mariner's Revenge Song

Encore 2:
June Hymn

09/21/09: The Wellmont Theater, NJ (Hazards of Love in full):

Spoiler: show

Prelude
The Hazards of Love 1 (The Prettiest Whistles Won't Wrestle the Thistles Undone)
A Bower Scene
Won't Want for Love (Margaret in the Taiga)
The Hazards of Love 2 (Wager All)
The Queen's Approach
Isn't It a Lovely Night?
The Wanting Comes in Waves / Repaid
An Interlude
The Rake's Song
The Abduction of Margaret
The Queen's Rebuke / The Crossing
Annan Water
Margaret in Captivity
The Hazards of Love 3 (Revenge!)
The Wanting Comes in Waves (Reprise)
The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned)

Encore:
Billy Liar
The Sporting Life
Odalisque
The Engine Driver
On the Bus Mall
The Apology Song
O Valencia!
Crazy on You (Heart cover)

Encore 2:
Sons & Daughters

09/19/09: Terminal 5, NYC ("Lotto Show"):

Spoiler: show

Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)
July, July!
Raincoat Song
Bridges and Balloons (Joanna Newsom cover)
From My Own True Love (Lost at Sea)
The Bachelor and the Bride
The Rake's Song
Culling of the Fold
I Was Meant for the Stage
The Crane Wife 3
The Island
Annan Water

Encore:
Miracle on the Hudson (Colin Meloy Improv Song)
The Tain
The Perfect Crime #2

Encore 2:
Mr. Blue Sky (Electric Light Orchestra cover)

11/05/08: Terminal 5, NYC:

Spoiler: show

Shanty for the Arethusa
July, July!
Here I Dreamt I Was an Architect
Valerie Plame
O New England
The Bachelor and the Bride
The Engine Driver
We Both Go Down Together
Record Year for Rainfall
Oceanside
The Perfect Crime #2
Days of Elaine
O Valencia!
Culling of the Fold
The Chimbley Sweep
16 Military Wives
The Mariner's Revenge Song

Encore:
Raincoat Song
Eli, the Barrow Boy
Sons & Daughters

07/16/07: Central Park Summerstage:

Spoiler: show

July, July!
Billy Liar
Summersong
The Perfect Crime #2
Odalisque
The Sporting Life
From My Own True Love (Lost at Sea)
The Engine Driver
The Crane Wife 3
The Island
O Valencia!
Sons & Daughters

Encore:
Oceanside
The Chimbley Sweep
The Mariner's Revenge Song

09/20/05: The Granada Theater, Lawrence KS:

Spoiler: show

California One / Youth and Beauty Brigade
Billy Liar
16 Military Wives
The Engine Driver
On the Bus Mall
We Both Go Down Together
Eli, the Barrow Boy
The Sporting Life
Song for Myla Goldberg
Odalisque
Tam Lin (Fairport Convention cover)
The Legionnaire's Lament
A Cautionary Song

Encore:
The Mariner's Revenge Song

I also saw them in April of 05 at the Granada and in Oct of 04 at the Jackpot Saloon in Lawrence, KS. I can't find online copies of those sets but I do remember that the Jackpot show was before Picaresque dropped and they played The Sporting Life, which was obviously new. And they closed with California One. And it was hotter than hell.

At that Granada show in April they played Leslie Anne Levine into We Both Go Down Together and I know they played The Tain. That was the firs time I'd heard it live and I managed to sneak into the venue for soundcheck and I heard them play it there, too. So I heard it all the way through twice that night, which was awesome.

[epilogue]

Also, I have a memory of hearing Cocoon live but it's not on any of the setlists I could find to copy/paste. It must have also been played at that first show I went to in 04. That would make sense.

[epilogue]

Official Album songs I haven't heard live:
As I Rise
Of Angels and Angles
When the War Came
Shankhill Butchers
Philomena
Till the Water's All Long Gone
Better Not Wake the Baby
Easy Come, Easy Go
Mistral

And obviously all of the new record.

EP/Singles I have not heard live:
Shiny
My Mother Was a Chineese Trapeze Artist
Everything I Try to Do, Nothing Seems to Turn Out Right
Sunshine
Constantinople
Hurdles Even Here
The Day I Knew You'd Not Come Back
After the Bombs
Perfect Crime #1
Sleepless
E. Watson
Foregone
Burying Davy
I4U
Why Would I Now
Riverswim
Fits & Starts
The Harrowed and the Haunted
Stateside
Ben Franklin's Song

[Kevin Davis]

I really love that '08 set. Those "Always the Bridesmaid" songs are so good.

You've seen a lot more than I have, but from your list I've seen "Shiny," "My Mother Was...," "Of Angels and Angles," "Shankill Butchers" (I absolutely fucking hate this song and I've seen it like three times), "Sleepless" (one of my favorites), and "Ben Franklin." And the new songs, which they played almost all of when I saw them in April.

[epilogue]

08/14/18: Prospect Park, Brooklyn (The Crane Wife in full) :
Severed
Sucker's Prayer
Make You Better
The Rake's Song
Down by the Water

The Crane Wife 3
The Island
Yankee Bayonet (I Will Be Home Then)
O Valencia! (with ‘Dracula’s Daughter’ tag)
The Perfect Crime #2
When the War Came
Shankill Butchers
Summersong
The Crane Wife 1 & 2
Sons & Daughters

Encore:
Once in My Life
Ben Franklin's Song
Mariner's Revenge

[epilogue]

Great show. Great energy. Band sounded fantastic. Best versions of The Island and of Mariner's I've heard yet!

Finally got When the War Came!!!

This show had been rescheduled from earlier in the summer. Colin said Lin-Manuel was originally going to join them for BFS, but he couldn't make the new date. That would have made me absolutely explode.

[epilogue]

The only bummer was not getting more of the new record. But getting all of TCW in full plus BFS more than makes up for that one small thing.

I adore this band so much!

[Joesanity]

The new stuff is really fun live. Seeing them twice in about the span of a week this spring (Nashville and Cleveland) made me appreciate the new album more.

[epilogue]

The new stuff is really fun live. Seeing them twice in about the span of a week this spring (Nashville and Cleveland) made me appreciate the new album more.

I was really hoping for more of the new stuff. But I can't complain. There's always next time. But I really loved the three that I got to hear. The live versions have so much energy to them. I heard We All Die Young last year before the new album dropped. They played it at a show in Brooklyn that was electric. Seeing that one live made me really look forward to all the other new album tracks.

Also, this "new" Mariner's is fantastic. The version they played the other night was like the version they would have written/recorded during the I'll Be Your Girl sessions. It was so funky and weird and haunting. Yet still totally fun.

[Kevin Davis]

"Starwatcher" was great live -- at first I thought it was a fairly middle-of-the-road track, but it became my favorite thing on the album after hearing it live.

"Your Ghost" was way better live too, but it didn't transform the album version for me in the same way.

[epilogue]

"Starwatcher" was great live -- at first I thought it was a fairly middle-of-the-road track, but it became my favorite thing on the album after hearing it live.

"Your Ghost" was way better live too, but it didn't transform the album version for me in the same way.

These two and Rusalka are the ones I'm most disappointed to have missed. But I'm sure those songs will stick around in their sets for a while. Rusalka might be the one that's rarest after this tour.

[epilogue]

This video isn't my favorite. But this song is genuinely becoming one of my all-time favorite Decembersists tracks. I fucking love this song so much!