A humble review, by a modest man

So last Thursday I went down town to see Okkervil River and the Decemberists. Since all by friends here are a combination of cheap, poor, busy or have a surplus of sand in their vaginas, I went to this show alone. This predicament turned out to be bitter sweet. While it was nice to not have to worry about someone else are making pointless conversation, and the show was far more relaxing because of this, it was unfortunate that I had no one to share the memories with. Anyhow, here’s the breakdown of how the show went.

Okkervil River:

Firs off, these guys were real good. I was upset with myself for not being more familiar with this bands discography. I also felt bad for them for a couple of reasons. One reason, this was one of the goofiest looking bands I’ve ever seen. Most of their stage mannerism seemed forced, like they were trying to look like what they sought a rock band should look like. Also, their lead singer looked like a coked-out Conor Oberst combined with the emo kids answer to Robert Smith (Now I know what you’re thinking: But Calvin, isn’t Conor Oberst the emo kids answer to Robert Smith? Well yes, but…). Okkervil’s keyboardist was defenitly ready for this show, as it appeared that he had spent the entire day in his parent’s basement on Star Trek message boards and searching for lost episodes of Babylon 5 all the while he wrote Back to the Future fan fic. Seriously, I thought they got this kid from the set of some teen comedy. He looked like the typical nerdy kid in that movie who gets got beating off in some disgusting way. The rest of the band was pretty normal, except for the guitar/bass player who looked to be at least 12 years older then everyone else in the band. Eerie. The other reason I felt sorry for them is while they were good, the Decemberist were a whole lot better.

Best Song: Easily It Ends with a Fall. They sped the song up a little for the live show, and it still doesn’t miss a beat.
Song that you knew of before, but after they played in live you couldn’t stop listening to it: From now on this will be know as ‘That Song’. Every good band has one song that which is pretty good, but seeing them play it live makes the song a 100 times better. I can’t remember the name of the song for Okkervil that did it for me, something to due with Anna in the title. (After some investigative work, the song might have been Auntie Alice, I’m pretty sure it was.)
Biggest Letdown: That they didn’t play The velocity of Saul at the time off his Conversion, which is arguably their best song.

Decemberists:

Wow, just wow. One of the better live shows I’ve ever been to. The band came out dressed like, well I don’t really know but they were all wearing khaki colored over jackets. The band looked pretty normal, at least in comparison the Okkervil. And they also have a female violinist, who also sings harmony lines, who you’ll fall in love with by the end of the show.

Best Song: Engine Driver. While some many of their songs were great, this one was the big winner. This song is quickly climbing the charts as one of my favorite songs ever (Foreshadowing of future posts/updates.). And after seeing it live, it just gets better. This song narrowly beat out Red Right Ankle which Meloy played solo.
“That Song”: July, July! This song is even better live, due to the female singing back up vocals, which makes the harmony line even better.
Biggest Letdown: This one’s a toss up. I can’t decide if it was that they didn’t play Mya Goldberg or I was meant for the stage, or the fact that they ended with the Tain.

Until We Meet Again