The Decemberists Play the Hero and the Fool

Author: Claire Bourne

The Decemberists were meant for the stage. Of this much I am certain after the Portland-based quintet charmed a capacity crowd in Coltrane Lounge Friday night with songs about pirates, soldiers and gypsy uncles.

Lead singer Colin Maloy was sheepish behind his guitar and heavy-rimmed glasses as he negotiated the narrative landscape of each song in the band's short, 50-minute set. Drummer Rachel Blumberg and bassist Jesse Emerson held their instruments at attention during the opening bars of "The Soldiering Life," but for the most part, the band performed their fantastical tunes in a deliciously understated way.

Maloy sang of intricate plots involving swashbuckling characters and subversive military personalities from a different age, while Blumberg, Emerson and multi-instrumentalists Chris Funk and Jenny Conlee painted his dreamworld with notes from Parisian sidewalks, London rooftops and clippers bound for never, never lands.

"As it tells its sorry tale / In harrowing detail / Its hollowness will haunt you," sang Maloy in "Los Angeles, I'm Yours" off the group's most recent release, "Her Majesty the Decemberists."

The Decemberists' performance was at once hollow and bursting at the seams. They coupled exquisite, multi-layered instrumentals with witty, lyrics to produce an eerily quirky opus about subversive love, fear and adventure.

They wrapped up their profoundly fanciful set with "The Chimbley Sweep," a fast-paced ditty that knit together a Mary Poppins-esque soot-faced roof dweller with the accordion strains of a quaint, dimly lit, smoky French cafÈ.

Riding on the coattails of Maloy's urgent yet serene pseudo-British accent, the Decemberists' act was a brisk journey through a series of splendid reveries. Known for their predilection for Dickensian costumes, Maloy and company allowed the music act for them this time.

"And from the floorboards to the flies / Here I was fated to reside / And as I take my final bow / Was there any ever doubt?" Maloy questions in "I Was Meant for the Stage," a song from their new album not included on Friday night's set list.

No, there is no doubt. Maloy is both Shakespeare's fool and his maladroit prince - comic and tragic, all at once. His cast of supporting characters - those with him on stage and those who reside tucked away in his imagination - is magnificent. They were meant to tread these boards. They were meant for applause.