Sporting a "yam yam outfit," as my friend would call it (consists of jeans and a striped, western style long sleeve shirt), Colin sounded great with his twelve string guitar in tow. I forgot what he started off with, but his second song was "We All Go Down Together," from Picaresque. Despite the missing band members and instrumentation, the stripped down version of this song still sounded excellent. In fact, all the songs he played were very well done. "The Engine Driver," which was one of my favourite tracks off of Picaresque was a standout song. Another song, "The Bachelor & The Bride," was just magnificent. Yes, I'm lacking description but instead relying on overused adjectives, but it's one of those "you had to be there" type shows.
Throughout the night, Colin was especially chatty. He introduced the crowd to Shirley, the skull who adorned Colin's stage. He was named Shirley by the crowd in Portland from the night before. Of course, the San Francisco crowd didn't want to be outdone, so one of the audience members asked him if we can name the ship that was next to Shirley. Even before Colin took any suggestions, one audience member yelled out "Maya Angelou!" Colin couldn't help but choose this perfect name. Thus, San Francisco christened the ship the "Maya Angelou."
Also, throughout his set, Colin put in some San Francisco themed songs. "Grace Cathedral Hill" was a true homage to San Francisco with its Grace Cathedral, North Beach and Fisherman's Wharf references. He ended that song by tying in "Grace Cathedral Park" by the Red House Painters. Another song was a cover of Joanna Newsom's "Bridges and Balloons." If you didn't know, Joanna Newsom is from the Bay Area.
Colin also sang one of his worst songs. He reasoned that such acoustic, solo gigs allows the artist to showcase his best songs. Well, he decided to buck that trend by playing something less flattering. He chose "Dracula's Daughter" despite the crowd shouting other songs that they think was his worst. Needless to say, that song was just horribly written but hilarious nonetheless.
Finally, Colin went cheesy by singing a song about his soon to arrive baby. "Weird & Wonderful" I think was the name of the song. It was cliche, yes, but so long as Colin recognized it was cliche, it was fine with me.
Overall, a wonderful and enjoyable gig. Definitely a treat to hear some Decemberists songs stripped bare.
Beer Rating:
2 comments:
I went to his show in L.A. the next day and we named a stuffed sheep that joined Shirley and Maya Angelou on the table; fyi, the sheep's name is Eric (altho I preferred my name, Conan).
He also sang his worst song for us too...
...that previous comment was by me, Robin ... of L.A., not Carrboro :). ooerrr...
-Robin of L.A.
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