The Decemberists, Bridezilla – Billboard

I was going to commence this review of The Decemberists first performance at Melbourne’s Billboard with the statement “The Decemberists are what The Hold Steady would be had the latter grown up in Portland listening to The Kinks, Squeeze, Lloyd Cole and The Waterboys rather than in Minneapolis listening to Springteen, The Replacements, Soul Asylum and Tom Petty”.

But then I purchased the cleverly compiled Show Book, an interesting companion piece to the bands 2009 North American tour (fancy that a program at a rock concert!), and I discovered that in an essay introducing the album The Hazards of Love, songwriter Colin Meloy recalls worshipping at the alter of (amongst others) St Westerberg.

Which kind of undermined my opening statement.

But not enough for me to retract it.

The Decemberists were certainly one of the most interesting live bands I’d seen in recent years and one of the most challenging bands to emerge from the 2000’s. Which is not to say that they are as avant garde as some of their press would indicate. In many ways they are very traditional – they adopt and adapt the role of storytellers and minstrels and in so doing draw on the core tenets of musical performance. Yes, it is uncommon to see a contemporary band whose arsenal of instrumentation includes hurdy gurdy, glockenspiel, bouzouki, accordian, mandolin etc but neither is it revolutionary. What sets The Decemberists apart is their willingness, bordering on obsession, to merge their folk music affectations with a rock concert sense of wanton abandon.

The band perform with raw energy and an almost punk aesthetic which seems incongruous when you look at them –visually they sport decidedly sensible haircuts, conservative wardrobe and an appearance that suggests day jobs as English Literature tutors at small but elite colleges somewhere in New England. The “look” is accentuated by the beard that Meloy has grown since the stolen pic that accompanies this review.

The inherent contradictions are a large part of their appeal.

The other part of their appeal is that they put on a great show. Colin Meloy is a fabulous frontman. He sings with a great spirit and his adamant belief in the songs he sings is infectious. While he was clearly performing for an audience of true believers he performed with a zeal they suggested that he was equally intent on converting any of the unconverted in their midst.

This being the bands first Australian tour they rewarded their long time fans with a set largely consisting of selections from their back catalogue with less  from the more“conceptual” The Hazards of Love.

Thus for all most of the concert there was a palpable feeling within the audience of expectation and anticipation – clearly they really didn’t know what songs to expect and thus when particular favourites appeared there was a huge reaction. Notable among these were O’ Valencia and The Crane Wife 3 from The Crane Wife, The Sporting Life and 16 Military Wives from Picaresque and The Hazards of Love offering The Rake’s Song.

It’s obvious that the audience responds to the implied “higher intellectualism” in the choice of lyrical subject matter and the ambitious musical textures employed but strip that away and you find a number of rollicking folk-rock songs that aren’t so far removed from the likes of our very own Weddings Parties Anything or the more coherent moments of the Pogues.

It’s a very clever approach that enables the band to make highly stylised albums and still deliver live shows that impact upon the heart and the feet as well as the brain. Thus epics of more than 10 minutes seem to sweep along on the crest of a wave making them both a journey and instantly gratifying.

It’s not an easy thing to achieve and they do it remarkably well.

Meloy takes the ol’ audience sing-a-long to a new level as well. In this segment he takes on an almost vaudevillian sense of showmanship but by constructing (relatively) complicated parts for sections of the audience to sing he ends up creating a wonderful musical moment that far exceeds that normally achieved by a tired call-response routine.

The band also paid homage to the local culture by performing a cover of  the Go-Betweens gorgeous Bye Bye Pride. While it was a solid version and a statement of the bands good taste it was surprising how many blank faces the songs drew – perhaps the Go Betweens need to be added to the curriculum of the tertiary arts classes that most of the audience, at least those toward the front,  probably attend!

The show concluded with a highlight of the concert going year (in January). The band performed The Mariners Revenge Song from Picaresque. It was a chaotic  fun with the audience participation consisting of making the noise you would make if you were being swallowed by a whale (really) and the band rolling around the stage in various positions while continuing to play. It’s heard to describe if you weren’t there but it was enough to bring even the most hardened cynic to wild applause and merriment.

It was a great way to finish a triumphant show.

It is highly unlikely that you will ever see the members of opening act Bridezilla rolling around on the stage. They are young, small, seemingly fragile and apparently disdainful of the audience. They appear to be either the proverbial deers caught in the headlights or prematurely world weary and cynical. Other than the lead singer they appear as though they would prefer that the audience not be there at all. However its not an ineffective shtick, if that’s what it is.

They are not so much unique as simply unconventional. They consist of a drummer, a violinist, a saxophonist, a guitarist and a singer who also plays guitar.

They may be without bass, but they are not baseless.

They fit into a tradition that consists mainly of bands that were in their prime when the members of Bridezilla were still in nappies – the likes of The Triffids, Blackeyed Susans, the Bad Seeds, Dirty Three, and international artists such as Mazzy Starr PJ Harvey and the Sugarcubes.
At this point their songs are yet to quite catch up with their ambitions (although I’d like to hear the studio versions) but they are fascinating to watch. Whether this exact configuration is going to be the ultimate vehicle for lead vocalist Holiday Sidewinder or whether this will be a step towards something more immediately compelling remains to be seen, but there is no doubt that she will utilize her luminescent star quality in one form or another.

The ball is in her court.