The Decemberists are a five piece folk rock band from Portland, Oregon and tonight they are joined by a couple of backing singers/instrumentalists. There’s are expectation form the three of us for better things after the Ryan Adams gig but the evening doesn’t start well with the fire alarm going off ten minutes before show time and an announcement to evacuate the building. It’s a false alarm but there’s a 25 minute delay to the start. Tonight is already going to be tight getting home as we must get the 23.36 from Brighton back to London.
After some stirring intro music Colin Meloy appears onstage with acoustic guitar and opens the show with a track from their new album ‘What a beautiful world what a terrible world’. The band joins him on stage and they flip flop a couple of songs from this and their last album the REM friendly ‘King is Dead’. The room is buzzing the energy levels tonight are a stark contrast to the previous night. There’s an excellent three song segue from my personal favourite album ‘The Hazards of Love’ with the excellent rockier number ‘The Rakes Song’ standing out.
There’s crowd participation galore with an extended la de dah de dah sing off between the balcony and stalls through ‘16 Military Wives’ and a great rapport between the band and the audience. It’s a talented bunch of multi instrumentalists at the top of their game. The Decemberists never fail to deliver and deserve a wider audience. We nip off before the last song of the encore and head back on the midnight train going anywhere with the alarm clocks hands closer to 2 than 1 in the morning when I finally reach home.