The first time I saw the Decemberists was back in 2005 (wow, was it that long ago already?), at King Tut’s in Glasgow, Scotland. King Tut’s is a pretty small venue, and it was an incredibly intimate and personal show. And it was amazing.

So when I got my tickets for last night’s Decemberists gig at the considerably larger Vogue Theatre in Vancouver, my thoughts were – they are going to have a hard time topping the last show!

The Decemberists are known for their quirky songs about pirates, 17th century whalers, ghosts, and mini rock operas based on Shakespeare and epic Irish poetry.

They bring such energy, affection and love to their live shows. They sound basically exactly like the album. This show actually had two acts – the first being the entirety of their last album, the Hazards of Love, complete with guest stars Becky Stark and Shara Worden. (Shara Worden especially rocked the casbah.) The Hazards of Love, of course, is itself a rock opera. Originally conceived as a stage play, it’s a romantic, meandering story about doomed love. It includes the wildly popular Rake’s Song, a rollicking “confessional” song about a man who murdered his children, and felt no guilt about it. (Here’s the video – the song might be a bit triggery!) (Also, apologies for the general crappiness of all these videos.)

After playing the entire album, they could’ve gotten away with calling it a night. A lesser band would’ve left it at that. So imagine our surprise when they gave us an intermission, and came back with an entire second set of songs!

It was like two concerts in one, and it was well worth the almost $50 ticket price. It ended up being a solid two and a half hours of the Decemberists performing. The second set was mostly old favourites – songs like Billy Liar, Angel Won’t You Call, and of course 16 Military Wives. I could’ve used more selections from the Crane Wife or Picaresque – they played O Valencia, but I felt the absence Shankill Butchers or Perfect Crime, and especially Culling of the Fold. When I saw them at King Tut’s they were promoting Picaresque so they played all my favourites from that, but I would’ve loved to see them play Eli, the Barrowboy and The Mariner’s Revenge Song again.

Here’s them playing Annan Water, my favourite from the new album next to the Rake’s Song. It’s very fantasy-novel esque, about a boy praying a river to let him pass.

And of course, I long for the day that I can see the Decemberists perform the Tain live. Given that they played the entirety of Hazards of Love though, I will take that as a trade off! At the end of the day, there are just too many brilliant Decemberists song for them to play it all in one show.

They was also a lot of audience interaction – and the audience was utterly, utterly charmed by such interactions. While Colin Meloy, the singer-songwriter, obviously lead the show, and it seemed most of the audience’s love was directed at him (people requested that he play his solo work), there was still a sense of affection between the band members. And they work like such a polished team – actually watching them perform certain songs was a little like watching a Broadway musical, in terms of how well they knew what they and each other were doing.

This was quite honestly the best concert I have ever seen in my life. The other week some classmates and I went to see Death Cab for Cutie, which was fantastic, and I was telling people it was easily in my top five of all concerts, but the Decemberists hit it right out of the park. Seeing the Decemberists live is definitely a treat, and like REM, they’re a band that everybody should see at least once.

I was also happy with the swag I picked up!

Last video: the final encore, A Cautionary Tale – just as triggery as the Rake’s Song, perhaps, it’s about a mother forced into prostitution. But, there is a really fun interlude! If you can handle the crappy POV of my filming, we were waaay back of the balcony!