went to decemberists w/ okkervil river last nite. figured it was a good deal for $12 a ticket.

did the will-call thing with a huge line waiting to go in, will-call girl said i could just go in -- thought i was sneaking in line!

almost bought the new okkervil cd (instead of waiting for it on emusic), then bought a beer and stood about as close as possible as i could carrying beverage.

okkervil performed about 6 songs and rocked a lot harder than i'd've guessed from the 2 albums i have. they played mostly from "black sheep boy". i'm not as familiar with their stuff, so i only recognized one song, but damned if they didn't kick butt, especially with all 6 band members providing harmonies on the final song.

decemberists kicked arse as well. i didn't have a watch on me, but i'm guessing they went for about 2hrs. from their new one, they played "sporting life", "eli, the burrow boy", "16 military wives", "the mariner's revenge song", "we both go down together" and opened with "the infanta". i also recognized "billy liar", "leslie ann levine" and at least one song off the tain. for those that go, try to stand on the side of the 2 female members -- there's more fun action over there. drummer playing wind organ, singer playing drums, cover of a kate bush song, cymbal into the crowd. was a great time.

between the two groups, there were more non-traditional-rock instruments out there than you can shake a mellotron at. Sit-down-slide-guitar, trumpet, xylophone, accordion, violin, viola, wind organ (i believe), banjo and mandolin. the decemberists even pulled a glok out on the crowd for their initial encore.

my only problem was some rude fan pushing his way to the front during the 2nd decemberist song, nearly pushing over some guy's gf, then saying "haven't you ever been to a concert before?" jerk. luckily he wasn't a complete spaz thru every song. otherwise, great nite.

Cool. I'm going to the Atlanta Decemberists show in a couple of weeks.

Typeslowly and I saw them in SLC on Monday night---sounds very similar to what you describe---great show.

In addition to what you listed, I also remember them playing Red Right Ankle, July July, and a Morrissey cover that neither of us recognized (surprisingly).

Okkervil River played It Ends With A Fall, For Real, Black(?), and a couple more from their new one. They also played the song from River of Golden Dreams that references Subway and Stop n' Shop (name escapes me).

Can't wait to see them this Saturday!

"it ends with a fall" is probably the song i recognized from okkervil. my friend, who isn't much into indie music, was impressed enough to wanna dl'em via sl sk.

the new okkervil kicks ass.

I'll chime in and agree wholeheartedly - after seeing this show Monday night with D. Marco, I decided I need to get that new Decemberists record STAT. Great stuff. I did pick up the new Okkervil and have been very impressed as well. Your review of the show is spot on. Both bands had great energy and are obviously very talented musicians. I don't think between 2 bands I've ever seen so many people play so many different instruments - awesome. And Okkervil did indeed RAWK. If this show comes through your area, you must go.

<---jealous.

man, hindsight is 20-20, but if i knew the terps were going to play their worst bball of the year last night, i definitely woulda skipped that and gone to this show instead. oh well.

were they selling the colin meloy sings morrissey ep?

and i agree with dalen, black sheep boy kicks much ass.

i didn't know about this & didn't look for it, but it was probably the one disc on the table i didn't recognize. if i knew what i was looking at, i woulda bought it.

i gots it on ss if you're interested. it's muy bueno.

did you like the fox?

The Morrissey covers disc was not for sale at the SLC show---we specifically looked for it.

i should've gone to this show when they played last week here in la, but i had car trouble- not to mention 5 shows were going on the same night.

the fox was nice. assuming the fox doesn't even oversell the place, it's size is a plus for me -- easy to see the artist no matter where you are in the place. bueno.

[EDIT: and i'm interested in that from ss. i'll look for it in your files. thanx.]

I saw them here in L.A. I'm glad to hear Okkervil got their shit together, because last week they were horrible. All drunk and sloppy and whatnot. Decemberists were good, although a bit stiff. The epic songs were the highlights. And they played The Tain!!

okkervil wasn't sloppy at all, except for the lead singer knocking the mic down once. (there was barely any room on the stage for okkervil & their instruments with decemberists instruments up there from the start too.)

decemberists weren't stiff. they looked like they were havin a fun ole time, especially on violin, drums and lead.

the tain suite was definitely cool. i didn't recognize it til this morning playing my decemberists / okkervil playlist. (i just acquired the tain a week after buying "picaresque" day it came out.)