I had the pleasure of seeing Colin Meloy perform solo at The Pabst on Tuesday night. As a huge Decemberists fan, I was obviously excited to see their talented front man perform solo. Especially after being disappointed by their recent tour cancellation. (Anyone know why??). Going into the show, I was a little worried that Colin’s stage theatrics would come out a little too much and seem a bit contrived. Although there was a lot of his stage goofiness, it definitely felt genuine. He was interacting with the crowd as though he was tight with all of us. He’s definitely comfortable on the stage. It’s got to be so difficult to stand on stage playing music with just yourself, your bottle of wine and 3 guitars. It must be pretty scary and difficult to pull off. I’m happy to say that Colin Meloy pulled it off. With just his guitars and a small wine buzz, he managed to come across truly genuine, with a passion for music and entertaining.
The highlight of the night was his performance of a new song that he’s been working on for The Decemberists new album (to be worked on this summer!). I can’t recall the name, but it was obvious that this song was still fresh and exciting for him to play. It was a classic Colin Meloy style tragedy involving the death of miner in the early 1900’s. Love him or hate him, I think Colin Meloy is slowly becoming one of the strongest songwriters of our day. If he wasn’t such a great musician, I’m sure he’d be a accomplished writer.
Anyone else at the show? What are your thoughts?
Here he performs one of my favorites off his new album, “Colin Meloy Sings Live”
Filed under: Music, Reviews | Tagged: colin meloy, decemberists, live, solo
The previous “Long/Short of it” Tour had been cancelled because of a band member’s serious illness. As for which bandmate it was, I have no clue and I’d like to imagine that they didn’t give too many details because they probably wouldn’t want disappointed fanmail about that particular member…
As for Meloy being a writer, I do know he has something published about the Replacements’ album “Let it Be” which I’d really like to find! I’ve also heard that he supposedly has an unpublished musical (but that could just be an internet rumour).
The show was quite the experience- not only was I entertained by Colin’s witty banter (which is always a treat as I’ve seen the Decemberists perform a few times already) but my yen for new Decemberists jams strengthened as I learned about his newest EP of Sam Cooke songs and the new album that should be coming out any time now. The new miner tale was epic and dark (just the way I and every other Decemberists fan like em). It was refreshing to see that the man can still make a good tune even after all those albums!
I did get to meet him afterwards- but being an idiotic nervous wreck of a fan, I didn’t get many intelligent words in (but I did get him to sign my ticket and sing a short line from “I Drew My Ship” into my cell phone-which by the way made a great ringtone!)