The Decemberists – Live At The Hollywood Bowl – Download The Entire Concert

“Are they smarter than you?”

HOLLYWOOD—JULY 7, 2007 | Portland, Ore.-based The Decemberists love colorful characters. This is reflected in the band’s music, which makes these characters come alive in its sound, flourishing its lyrics with wonderous tales and tranforming the band members themselves into world-weary narrators. This night, Colin Meloy and his fellow chimbley sweeps/mariners/legionnaires were joined by the 106-member L.A. Philharmonic, which cast the songs in a slightly different light. The orchestra accentuated The Decemberists’ dramatic flair and added a touch of class, yet kept the alterations to a minimum and the essential sound of the band intact. While some of the audience slumbered to the low-tempo orchestration, others engaged in an all-together different dream in which the characters lived and breathed as The Decemberists imagined them.

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The Decemberists’ Tale
After the two openers, the L.A. Philharmonic arrived on stage with The Decemberists enthusiastically following behind. The group began with “The Crane Wife 1 & 2,” from the album The Crane Wife, which was thematically written after the Japanese folklore about a man who fell in love with a woman who was actually a crane. Whereas on the album, “1 & 2” is the second to last track, an odd placement since it is the beginning of the story, The Decemberists began the night at the story’s beginning. The 11-minute song was not the only lengthy orchestration of the night and served as preparation for later, when the band performed “The Tain,” an 18-minute, five-part song. Picaresque tracks “The Infanta” and “We Both Go Down Together” sounded especially richer with the orchestral accompaniment and both featured an enjoyably full-sounding horn section.

The Philharmonic took breaks in parts for the faster-paced songs, which included love/hate letter “Los Angeles, I’m Yours.” When Colin began to play the opening guitar chords of the song, all the locals cheered in recognition. It was one of two songs that had the audience stand up from their seats. The other was “O Valencia!,” although Colin had to let everyone know that they could in fact stand up, which is atypical of a typical Decemberists performance. The band prefers interaction, liveliness and a closely huddled group to tell/sing their stories to. All in all, it’s a rather intimate affair. But the Hollywood Bowl was foreign territory for the band, who obviously enjoyed performing there nonetheless, and such intimacy is nearly impossible to achieve. For those sitting toward the back, Colin often made references to them, asking how they were doing back there, recognizing the gulf that separated them. And though at parts, the music sounded absolutely stunning with the backing orchestra, Decemberists fans couldn’t help but feel a tinge disappointed at the somewhat tame, subdued performance.

Epilogue
For the encore, the group returned for one final song, Her Majesty track “The Chimbley Sweep,” which was rousing but an all-too brief farewell for what felt like a very short set. Though I suspect it was just the disatisfied feeling we were left with that made us feel the performance was far too short.

Downlaod (110 MB)

(Must have WinRAR to unzip)