The Decemberists, the charming chamber folk-rock band from out of Portlandia, became famous for live performances as elaborate and detailed as their ornate songs, staging obscure battles or sea scenes with sudden appearances by man-eating whales into their shows.
There was none of that Wednesday as the band took the stage at Wolf Trap in Virginia, two years after they were originally supposed to play there, during the time when everything disappeared. The title of the current excursion, “Arise from the Bunkers! 2022” was just about the most florid part of the tour. It was enough to be present, at long last, alive and performing before thousands of fans in the Virginia woods, even as they have given up for now the costumed accessories or even the notion of promoting any particular release — I’ll Be Your Girl, their eighth full length album, came out a full four years ago now.
But certainly the audience had no complaints about their straightforward approach to their solid, 17-song, 105 minute show. The band has been sprinkling its sets this summer with selections from throughout its career (though sadly, nothing from 2015’s What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World). “Hope you like the old ones,” said frontman Colin Meloy, as keyboardist Jenny Conlee strapped on her accordion and Chris Funk sat down to the pedal steel guitar for “Shiny,” the oldest song from their repertoire, from an an album that was mostly demos before they had a full recording contract. They followed it, though, with a new song, about meeting someone at a burial ground.
Things have been trending a little dark in Meloy’s more recent songs. Among the three played from the I’ll Be Your Girl, was “Sucker’s Prayer,” about an impending drowning suicide and the lament “I wanna love somebody but I don’t know how” (whose desperation was undercut by fans lustily singing along). “Rusalka, Rusalka / The Wild Rushes” also had a theme of diving to the bottom and facing death. “Severed” had the divisive tone of a recent politician.
At the same time there’s an uplift and drive in the musical approach from a band—which includes Nate Query on bass and John Moon on drums—that has maintained a consistent, committed membership for 17 years. While Meloy stayed with acoustic guitar center stage where he dominated with his reedy vocals, the musicians around him built and built on his tuneful anthems.
A big asset to the tour was Lizzy Ellison of the bands Cardiod and Radiation City. She played additional keyboards and banged a tambourine but really took the spotlight when she took the queen’s solo on “The Wanting Comes in Waves / Repaid,” bringing the same kind of power Shara Worden did on the original recording on The Hazards of Love. It was the one moment when an individual effort got its own ovation at the show.
The previous stop on the tour in New York City had a surprise guest: Lin-Manuel Miranda, who guested on “Ben Franklin’s Song,” a Hamilton outtake he had written with the band. The Decemberists in Wolf Trap were able to provide a satisfying show without such unexpected star power.
Solid musicianship is what the opening act Jake Xerxes Fussell is all about. A fingerpicking expert from Columbus, Georgia, he also had the knack of picking terrific songs to perform from a version of Duke Ellington’s “Jump for Joy” to start to the traditional “Jubilee” he said he picked up from a Jean Richie album (“Any Jean Richie fans here?”).
The choicest stuff were songs that reflected the sublime oddity of the South and the poetry of obscure blues, such as his tasty closing query, “Have You Ever Seen Peaches growing on a Sweet Potato Vine?”
THE DECEMBERISTS SETLIST
The Infanta
Calamity Song
Sucker’s Prayer
Song for Myla Goldberg
Shiny
Burial Ground
The Wanting Comes in Waves / Repaid
The Sporting Life
The Crane Wife 1 & 2
Severed
Down by the Water
Rusalka, Rusalka / The Wild Rushes
I Was Meant for the Stage
June Hymn
Sons & Daughters
JAKE XERXES FUSSELL SETLIST
Jump for Joy
Push Boat
Jubilee
The River St. James
Love Farewell
Have You Ever Seen Peaches Growing on a Sweet Potato Vine?
