The Decemberists - HMV Hammersmith Apollo - 16/03/11 (Live Review)
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
Written by James Conlon
The HMV Hammersmith Apollo is by no means an intimate venue. With a large ground floor and an extended seating gallery upstairs, the place is primed for some of the biggest acts in modern music (Katy Perry was set to take up a three-night residency at the venue the night after the show). However, as The Decemberists announced their arrival with the first acoustic twangs of their set, there was something about the band’s inviting rustic melodies that seemed to subvert logic, making the whole occasion feel strangely intimate.
The crowd was a surprising mix of young skinny-jeaned punters stood side-by-side with the more matured fans: a testament (if anything) to the humanist appeal of Colin Meloy’s otherworldy lyricisms and emotive chord progressions. The one thing that has always amazed me about the band is that they can be talking about barrow-boys, pirates or crane wives and yet still make the emotion of the song resonate with a modern audience, no matter what age.
Starting with the lesser-known EP track ‘Shiny’, The Decemberists proceeded into an unrestrained pacing through their most recent album ‘The King is Dead’. Meloy began the newer material with a tenuous request: “We’re going to play some songs from our new record, if that’s alright”, and judging by the enthusiastic singing along and foot stomping to ‘Down By The Water’ and ‘Calamity Song’, it was clear that the audience hadn’t just come along hoping for the classics.
Colin Meloy had an undeniable control over the audience – no doubt not a natural gift, but rather a talent which has evolved out of the band’s 11-year history. As the more overbearing members of the crowd shouted requests and drunken “I love you’s” at the stage, Meloy dismissed the interruptions with quick wit, winning over the uncertain members of the audience with his charm.
However this charm evolved into all-out conducting as the band rallied through an energetic performance of their 2005 track ’16 Military Wives’. Meloy warmed up the audience slowly, testing out a whispered “la de da de da de da de da de daaaaaaa” as the song reached its refrain, before building the crowd up to an all-out shout at the flick of his finger.
One of the highlights came from the 2009 single ‘The Rake’s Song’, where the band flooded the stage with blood-red light to reflect the song’s malicious tone. The track was delivered with spite-filled enthusiasm from Meloy, who once again succeeded in embodying his ‘humble narrator’ and conveying the murderous tale to the awe-struck crowd. His real talent shone through as he shook off the protagonist’s mask at the end of the track, giving a cheeky aside to the crowd, saying: “You’re all implicated now”
This wasn’t The Decemberists’ first visit to London: not by a long shot. Yet still, as the band embarked on their final ‘epic’ of the night, ‘The Mariner’s Revenge Song’, the entire group performed as if they had stepped on stage for their debut performance. Multi-instrumentalist Chris Funk played conductor to the large crowd, who were once again invited to share the experience by screaming on cue. Meanwhile, the band performed their most energetic number of the evening, depicting the grand tale of a shipwreck with all the theatrical enthusiasm of a pantomime dame.
The band chose to close the evening with a second encore: a rendition of their recent fan-favourite ‘June Hymn’. The restrained ode to summer seemed to sit perfectly as a closer, calming the crowd and reminding fans that although the group can bellow out the big numbers like many of rock music’s finest, the one advantage that they will always have as an act is the undeniable ability to connect directly with their audience on the simplest, emotional level.
The Decemberists played:
Shiny
Down By The Water
Calamity Song
Rise To Me
We Both Go Down Together
The Bagman's Gambit
Won't Want For Love (Margaret In The Tiara)
The Crane Wife 1 & 2
The Crane Wife 3
The Rake's Song
Don't Carry It All
Rox In The Box
This Is Why We Fight
16 Military Wives Encore
The Hazards Of Love 4 (The Drowned)
The Mariner's Revenge Song Encore
June Hymn
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