My first thought upon entering the sold out Decemberists show at the Riverside this past Friday night was, "Wow, I didn't realize the demographic for the Decemberists skewed so old." Turned out to be only partly true -- while the Decemberists attracted your usual crowd of hipsters, they also attracted an older, "I can say I went to a Decemberists concert and feel cool, and their music doesn't scare me!" crowd. Both those crowds went home happy. I'll admit up front that I like the Decemberists -- even their albums. But I really like their live shows. After seeing show after show with bad stage presence (Bright Eyes) and horrible banter (Bright Eyes), the combination of which can make a show almost unwatchable (Bright Eyes), I appreciate a well-crafted show with good stage presence, good music and good banter. Plus, I'm a huge nerd, so I dig the hyper-literate folk spin the Decemberists put on some of their songs.
This show was really two shows -- first, the Hazards of Love as a play, and second, their old stuff. In the first show/set, the Decemberists played through their entire new album without break and without banter. I thought the setting of the band on a stage (the Riverside is a theater, after all) really underlined the thematic nature of the album. Having listened to the Hazards of Love a few times in the days leading up to the show, I was able to follow what was going on. Most of the crowd didn't seem so prepared -- most seemed lost during the lesser-known songs on the album (including, curiously, Annan Water. I guess most of the crowd doesn't listen to XMU, which plays it ad nauseum). The highlights of the first set were the performance of The Rake's Song, with virtually the whole band playing drums throughout, and any song featuring Shara Worden as the Queen. Worden's vocals were outstanding, and she overshadowed everyone else any time she started singing.
After taking a 25 minute break, the band came back for their second show/set, which consisted of the band's older material. While the band didn't play all the songs I hoped, it was still 50 minutes of solid music. Plus, Meloy had his usual good banter. At the end of the show, he invited a few fans from the front row onto the stage to sing with him, but I think he got more than he bargained for when about 50 fans jumped on stage and surrounded the band for the remainder of the song (
see crappy picture). Bonus points for the unexpected cover of Heart's Crazy On You, which allowed the band to feature encore vocals by Worden. In the end, one of the better shows I've seen this year in Milwaukee. 8/10.
I like that The Decemberists now have to tell their crowds ahead of time whether they'll be performing a "regular" show or a "Hazards of Love" show. That's what a concept album will do to you. I agree with the critics that the album isn't all that great front-to-back. Give me Operation Mindcrime any day of the week over this album. But, like most Decemberists effort, even if I don't particularly like a certain song or album, I can at least appreciate the effort, and know that they do so with a mixture of sincere artistry, humility and fun. I've written about Decemberists before, so I won't extol again here my love-hate relationship with the band. Instead, I'll talk about this Lolla show. They simply rushed through the Hazards of Love front-to-back, and as everybody expected, the guest female vocals stole the show. Much ink has been spilled about the Diamond gals on this album, so I won't go into it here. It was a solid effort, if rushed, and broke no real new ground. As part of a weekend festival, it worked, but as a stand alone show, I wouldn't have been real happy. 
