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The Decemberists and My Brightest Diamond in Chicago, April 19, 2007

Chicago's sons and daughters take tall tales, "Freak Out" in stride

By Meghan Murphy
Published: May 3rd, 2007 | 2:56pm

My Brightest Diamond

On Thursday, April 19, 2007, while opening for the Decemberists at the historic Riviera Theatre in Chicago, My Brightest Diamond accomplished the difficult task of winning over an audience who isn’t there to see you.

With bewildering vocal dexterity and haunting songs, frontwoman Shara Worden evoked the smoky sounds of Beth Gibbons and the fantastical storybook world of Canadian singer/songwriter, Sarah Slean.

My Brightest Diamond was a power trio, wrestling enormous sounds from just bass, drums and Worden’s guitar or keyboard. The crowd was impressed, especially by a song she called a “Pearl Jam mash-up.” They played with tons of energy, Warden running around the stage in her white suit and black patent leather kitten heels. The only weak point of the set was the last song, "Freak Out." Its slow, sensuous verse was constantly interrupted by a chorus consisting entirely of the words “freak out” delivered in an adolescent chirp.

The Decemberists

If you're a fan of the Decemberists, seeing them live is an important step to take in your fanhood. The live shows temper what could mistakenly be construed as pretentious records, what with all the poetic lyrics and grandiose instrumentation. Lead singer and frontman Colin Meloy is very aware of the fact that he writes a lot of dramatic songs, often about lovers (or gypsies, which he comically recognized out loud) with a twisted and dark fate. This group of musicians, full of talent and ability, don't carry themselves with any awareness of this. Rather, they perform with confidence and humility.

<img alt="colin guitar.jpg" src="http://venuszine.com/stories/colin guitar.jpg" width="100" height="176" align="left" hspace="5"/>
Meloy's moppy brown hair and decidedly unhip glasses make it almost surprising that he's such a rock star on stage. He held the audience in the palm of his hand, encouraging them to sing along, even in rounds on more than one occasion.

The show got started after a too-long recording of an arcane chorus that was possibly in German. Then, the band came on stage one by one to play "The Crane Wife 3," the first track from on the new album, The Crane Wife. Each member of the band appeared on stage to play his or her part in turn until the song erupted into full blossom.

The band played mostly tunes off of the new album, but pleased the crowd with an even more uptempo version of "July, July" (from Castaways and Cutouts) and "16 Military Wives" (Meloy had the audience saluting) and "The Infanta" (both from Picaresque).
Toward the end of the set, they played the prog-sounding "The Landlord's Daughter". It was a performance that, while fantastic, seemed a bit disjointed from the rest of the show.

Ending the set was "Sons and Daughters." Meloy had the audience chanting along, "Here all the bombs fade away," a goosebump-inducing chorus of hope and camaraderie that would have been a fine ending to a fabulous show. But, in response to the overwhelming approval and pleading of the crowd for more, Meloy came back onstage and played a solo song, "Weird and Wonderful," a tune about the conception of his son, born only 14 months ago. The final tune of the night was “The Mariner's Revenge Song.” This is a regular "thing" that the Decemberists do, and an appropriate way to conclude the evening after all of the crowd participation. Near the end of the epic “Moby Dick”-esque tale, Meloy implores the crowd to provide the “special effect” of screaming as if being swallowed by a whale. The crowd was all too eager to comply. Looking around at the ragtag crowd of hipsters, gray hairs and pre-teens it seemed the call put forth years ago in Castaways and Cutout’s “Youth and Beauty Brigade” had finally been answered. These castaways and cutouts are a force to be reckoned with.

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Photos by Andrew Gill