Decemberists (with a demon)

Tonight my good friend Miranda and I went to McMenamins Crystal Ballroom to see The Demberists perform, on the first night of their tour supporting their latest album The Crane Wife. It was a really good show. I have no photos because I was cautious and didn't bring my camera (figuring it wouldn't be allowed) and, of course, I could have. Sheesh!

The opening band, Lavender Diamond, was quite odd. The female singer was very cute, though quite quirky and Miranda and I suspected she was either drunk, high, or little insane. But cute. Musically it wasn't anything I'd write home about (well, I guess I am blogging about it), it might be nice background music. Between songs the singer would congratulate the audience for world peace, talk about holograms, and romance. "Romance, peace, and particles! Yay!" (uhh)

Decemberists played an excellent show, naturally weighted strongly towards the songs from their latest album, though they did play a lot of tracks from their earlier albums. Most notably was an excellent performance of Military Wives. I was a bit disappointed that they didn't play a few songs though (such as The Mariner's Revenge Song, and Eli, The Barrow Boy) but, it was a great show.

Regarding my subject line (related to an earlier post) Lisa Molinaro was fantastic, and it was a joy to see her perform with Decemberists. Most notable was her versatility. Unlike her work with Talkdemonic where she plays violin almost exclusively, tonight she also played guitar, banjo, keyboards, xylophone, accordion, and sang (all of the backup and harmony vocals). She was fantastic, and it was great to see her shine. Colin Meloy (lead singer of The Decemberists) was very gracious and introduced her and congratulated her several times. Fantastic! Go Lisa! And have a great tour! 🙂