Decemberists: BOA Pavilion, 9 June, 2009

OK, I'm not going to blog-critique the show. Just so's we're clear.

I'm going to gush!

I've only been a Decemberists fan for a few years now. Once upon a time I got a homemade compilation of their stuff from a friend, and then a while later, The Crane Wife came out. I saw them back in November, and it made the top 5 shows I've ever seen. Obama had just won the election and Colin Meloy turned it into a victory rally, and the encore performace of Sons & Daughters changed my life a little.

Background established. Of this definitely polarizing band, I am a completely biased, unabashed fan.

This summer the band is promoting their latest album, Hazards of Love, which is a one-sitting, epic concept, alt-folk-rock opera, banquet for the soul kind of album, featuring a shape-shifting fawn, a jealous magical forest queen, a morally bankrupt abductor of maidens, and a maiden, who has no trouble falling in love with fawn-men she meets in a primeval forest. Excellent! With somehelp from guest artists, they're playing the whole thing, start to finish, and you bet your whatsis I was going to be there!

I was. It was delicious. Repaid was worth the price of admission, if you ask me.

After a break, they came back and rocked some older tunes, and then blew the Pavilion away with a cover of Heart's Crazy on You, featuring the ladies from Hazards, Becky Sharp & Shara Worden, on lead vocals. Holy crap!

I'm still running on the lingering buzz from the show. It was that good.

Yum!