The Decemberists at Palace Theatre, St Paul (19 May 2024)
- Red Right Ankle
- Don’t Go to the Woods
- Leslie Anne Levine
- Don’t Carry It All
- Burial Ground
- The Crane Wife (Part 1)
- The Soldiering Life
- Oh No!
- Long White Veil
- The Sporting Life
- The Queen’s Rebuke / The Crossing
- Severed
- Sixteen Military Wives
- A Beginning Song
— Encore —
- Joan in the Garden
- Making Noise for the Ones You Love
- Morning Zoo
- It’s Alive!
- Elvis is in the Freezer
- The Window
- I Go Out at Night
- Go Outside
- Black Earth, WI
Tour Dates
- May 21: Chicago, IL – Salt Shed
- May 22: Detroit, MI – Royal Oak Music Theater
- May 24: Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium
- July 12: Bend, OR – Hayden Homes Amphitheater^
- July 13: Oakland, CA – Fox Theater
- July 14: Los Angeles, CA – The Bellwether
- July 15: Los Angeles, CA – The Bellwether
- July 18: San Diego, CA – Humphreys
- July 19: Tucson, AZ – Rialto Theater
- July 20: Phoenix, AZ – The Van Buren
- July 22: Santa Fe, NM – The Bridge
- July 23: Denver, CO – The Mission Ballroom
- July 24: Sandy, UT – Sandy Amphitheater
- July 26: Missoula, MT – Kettlehouse Amphitheater
- July 27: Spokane, WA – Spokane Pavilion
- July 29: Vancouver, BC – Queen Elizabeth Theatre
- July 31: Seattle, WA – Woodland Park Zoo Amphitheatre*
- July 31: Seattle, WA – Woodland Park Zoo Amphitheatre*
- August 2: Bellingham, WA – Mount Baker Theatre
- August 3: Troutdale, OR – McMenamins Edgefield*
- August 25: London, UK – All Points East
Before we get to the Decemberists, Chicago’s Ratboys opened the show.
Ratboys started in 2010 with singer/songer Julia Steiner and guitarist Dave Sagan, originally from Indiana. When they relocated back to Sagan’s hometown of Chicago in 2015, they focus on releasing their debut album AOID on Topshelf Records. To make it a full band, they added drummer Marcus Nuccio and bassist Sean Neumann, and shortly after, in 2017, they released their second album GN, which many critics tout as their best album.
With their fifth studio album, The Window (Topshelf Records), the band finally is headlining their own tour, having spent the majority of their existence opening for Soccer Mommy, Pup (in May 2019), Slothrust (in Aug 2017), Diet Cig, Vundabar, Wild Pink, Slingshot Dakota, Pet Symmetry, and lots more. We’ve been trying to check them out since last October 2023, but unfortunately, due to busy schedules of “Rocktober” (we had a scheduling conflict), we had to take a rain check on their show.
Now that we’ve seen them, they did not disappoint. Steiner is quite funny, and her songs gives you a glimpse in her childhood. For example, “Elvis is in the Freezer” is about her dead cat, Elvis. The cat died while she was away at college, and her mother knew how much he meant to her, so she froze him until she came back so they can give him a proper burial. Personally speaking, I love my cat too, but that’s just too weird.
The band thanked the Decemberists singer Colin Meloy’s wife (illustrator Carson Ellis) for making cookies for them. And with that, the band ended their set with “Black Earth, WI”, and hurried off to enjoy their cookies rewards. What a treat.
Since forming in 2000, yes, 24 years ago, The Decemberists have always written songs from a historical perspective, thanks to Colin Meloy’s fascination with the 1800s and beyond. Even their name is derived from Decembrist revolt in Russia, in 1825.
I often think Meloy writes all his songs by candlelight with a proper ink pen and on paper parchment. His lyrics have subjects, vocabulary, and phrases from a certain time period, which is unheard of in a modern pop song. It’s one of the many reasons that the Decemberists have such a cult-like fan following.
We’ve already mentioned what a great band they are, having seen them previously at the Northrop Auditorium, after a long hiatus, in Mar 2015: “So, what a terrible show, what a beautiful show – the two half-baked songs purposely provided good comic relief and the audience was really treated to a nattily-dressed band, returning as strong as ever, after a few year’s hiatus.”
For hardcore Decemberists fans, they will absolutely love this current tour, as you got to hear brand new songs from As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again, such as “Don’t Go to the Woods” (which is classic Decemberists songwriting). With time, As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again will probably go down as one of their best albums, including Castaways and Cutouts and Picaresque.
Unfortunately, for casual fans, who were interested in their “hits”, you’re not going to recognize any songs, or like this set. For everyone else, who packed the Palace Theatre’s dance floor, you’re going to absolutely love this 2024 tour.
That’s not to say that they didn’t do fan-favorites, such as “Leslie Anne Levine” and “The Crane Wife”. The latter song actually originally comes in three parts, but we only got the first part.
Based on their new songs, mixing in well with their old songs, The Decemberists, once again, proved that they are still a great American band, As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again.
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Note: Apology for the lack of photos, we were limited to just the first two songs, which were mostly acoustic and were sung in semi-darkness.
