december in october

I went to an awesome Decemberists concert last night at the State Theatre. They played the Walker Art Center's festival this summer but I was at Interlochen and had to miss one of my favorite bands ever. The show they put on featured their new album, The Hazards of Love, played in its entirety with guests Becky Stark and Shara Worden singing the roles of Margaret and the Queen of the Forest, respectively.

I can't overstate how much fun this was. How many times am I going to get a chance to see an incredible rock opera semi-staged and played this well? And to hear Shara hit that high note at the end of "The Wanting Comes In Waves/Repaid" is worth the price of admission...she is absolutely incredible. I would highly recommend her album, Bring Me the Workhorse, if you haven't heard it yet (especially "We Were Sparkling").

I blogged briefly about The Hazards of Love last March before I left for Greece but didn't really say much because I hadn't had a chance to really absorb the thing. It is easily my favorite album that The Decemberists have ever put out (Sorry Picaresque. But you put up a massive struggle before you were unseated). The music ranges from heavy metal ("The Queen's Rebuke/The Crossing") to Nashville-style country & western ("The Hazards of Love 4") to one of the best/creepiest uses of a harpsichord on a rock record I think I've ever heard ("The Hazards of Love 3"). And the motives they use to tie everything together are amazing little things that re-occur at just the right time.

And if that wasn't enough, they played another set of songs from their other albums. For the final encore they invited Becky and Shara back out for an incredible cover of Heart's "Crazy On You." I am so glad that YouTube had this...and it's even from the Rock the Garden concert here in Minneapolis that I missed last summer.