decemberists roll call.

[miss pretentious]

i'm highly HIGHLY considering picking up tickets to this. anyone else going?
 
 i'm trying to weigh the pros and cons... i've seen them twice already BUT the BSO is awesome. i've also never paid to see them before BUT i should probably save my money for another show.  i have nothing else to do BUT i should probably clean my apartment.
 
 im so torn.

[K8teebug]

I have to go to the O's game with my cousin visiting from England.  But, most of the rest of my family is going.
 
 i thought the show was next weekend  

[ggw]

Honestly, I like the Decemberists a lot and I think their first few shows in DC were fabulous (Black Cat Backstage anyone?).  But the past couple of shows I've seen (sans orchestra) have been insufferable cutesy-pageants full of matching costumes, drama club antics and inside jokes.

[HoyaSaxa03]

Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
  Honestly, I like the Decemberists a lot and I think their first few shows in DC were fabulous (Black Cat Backstage anyone?).  But the past couple of shows I've seen (sans orchestra) have been insufferable cutesy-pageants full of matching costumes, drama club antics and inside jokes.

ding ding!

[kosmo vinyl]

i'm tempted but the orchestra seems like an added novelty... maybe it was heat induced but after witnessing them open their bonnaroo set with "the mariner song" followed by "the tain" i told kosmette i was over them.  one would think that festival would equal fun short  songs from the their early days, but no...

[fishrokka]

If you want to get a preview of the orchestral arrangments, archive.org has their show at the Hollywood Bowl from earlier this week available for download. Some of the arrangements are very very nice. Alas, The Tain is still in circulation.

[kosmo vinyl]

well based on  reviews of the hollywood bowl show, i'm going to pass....

[miss pretentious]

Originally posted by kosmo:
  i'm tempted but the orchestra seems like an added novelty... maybe it was heat induced but after witnessing them open their bonnaroo set with "the mariner song" followed by "the tain" i told kosmette i was over them.  one would think that festival would equal fun short  songs from the their early days, but no...

wow. the tain? at a festival? good lord. i can't imagine that...

[distance]

i saw them at acl a couple years ago.
 i showed up early at the stage because tortoise was playing after them.  it was agonizing.
 
 i thought i needed to be there early for tortoise.  i was obviously wrong.  tortoise starte their set playing to like 500 people.  seemed everyone else went to see coldplay.
 
 tortoise + getting out before most everyone else > coldplay.

[Darth Ed]

I'll be there in the fourth row (DDD). I'm sure some would consider me a fanboy because I've been to every Decemberists show in the area over the past five or so years. I think the Decemberists put on one of the best shows around, and I am very curious as to how they are going to integrate the BSO into their oeuvre. I'm a bit leery, I guess, but I also trust them enough to hope they know what they're doing.
 
 That said, I too yearn for the days of yore when the Decemberists played at the Black Cat and their first couple of 9:30 Club shows. I fell in love with the Decemeberists the first time I heard "The Tain" at the Black Cat. Their recent shows have been a bit too audience participatory for my tastes, particularly when they keep asking us to do the same thing concert after concert ("Mariner's Revenge," ugh...). I have a higher threshold for that stuff than most of the other jaded concert-goers around here, but even I'm getting tired of that. Overall, I tend to prefer the Colin's solo shows which are stripped down to the essentials of Colin's voice, his lyrics, and his guitar.
 
 Even so, the show at the Strathmore a few months ago was excellent. Better than the 9:30 Club show before that, I think, but that might have just been because my appreciation of "The Crane Wife" was deeper by the time of the Strathmore. I know "The Crane Wife" was somewhat unpopular around these parts when it was released. I liked it from the first listen and defended it at the time, but it grew on me even more with each listen. I now rank it very high in their discography.

[Cock Van Der Palm]

Just got back from the show.  Was able to score a pair of 5th row seats for $40 each.  Great show and the BSO really added to the songs.  I kicked myself for missing them at The Strathmore and was glad I was able to see them at a reasonable cost.  Great sound and song selection (even The Tain worked well).  They took an intermission but not sure why.

[challenged]

Originally posted by jeffml:
  Just got back from the show.  Was able to score a pair of 5th row seats for $40 each.  Great show and the BSO really added to the songs.  I kicked myself for missing them at The Strathmore and was glad I was able to see them at a reasonable cost.  Great sound and song selection (even The Tain worked well).  They took an intermission but not sure why.

i am guessing the intermission was a Union thing for the orchestra?  
 
 very enjoyable, even paying full price in row 5 as well.
 
 best BSO integration of the Ben Folds, Elvis Costello, Decemberists trilogy.

[Cock Van Der Palm]

That is what I was thinking re: intermission.  They said it was their first intermission ever, so if it was a union thing, the other city's orchestras didn't require it.

[Darth Ed]

I really enjoyed this show! The BSO arrangements sounded great and made nearly every song better. (The only song which I didn't think quite worked was "Los Angeles, I'm Yours") Highlights for me were "The Tain" (I started the standing ovation, I think) and "I Was Meant for the Stage." I don't think the latter has ever sounded better. Wow. Excellent show. I got a kick out of Colin jumping off the stage and running up to the lawn and then having a difficult time getting back on stage. Chris Funk's facial expressions during that whole escapade were priceless! I guess my only complaint was that it felt short. But I am just coming off a 3+ hour Smashing Pumpkins concert, so two hours is going to seem short after that, I guess. The intermission was pretty long though. I think they probably only played for an hour and a half or so really.

[Reod Dai]

I'm also extremely glad I decided to go down.  We scored a pair of tickets for $30 each, one lawn and one tenth row dead center.  So I sat down there for the first half, until intermission, then we switched and I spent the second half up on the lawn (front and center).  So I for one was glad of the intermission, as it made the switch a lot easier than if they had kept playing straight through.
 
 Catching the show was worth it for "The Infanta" alone.  It's one of my favorite Decemberists songs, and I've been wanting to see it played live since the first time I saw them.  This was, incidentally, the fifth time I've seen them, meaning that they didn't play "The Infanta" on the other four occasions, leaving me disappointed on every one.  So imagine how ecstatic I was when he said they were going to play it and I realized that the first time I'd see it live was going to be with a full orchestra.     I was almost as excited when he started playing the opening strains of "The Bagman's Gambit".
 
 I remember being amazed as the orchestra began chiming in on the first song.  "Crane Wife 3" is another one of my favorites, and the effect as the orchestra kicked into full gear was incredible.  It became immediately clear what a special night it was going to be.     And yeah, "The Tain" came off really well, the orchestra really helped it out.  And good lord, I definitely didn't expect "I Was Meant for the Stage" to come off so impressively at the end.  I was really glad they gave us "Mariner's Revenge", too, because I'd only ever seen them play it once before, the very first time I saw them.  An amazing evening, all in all.