After multiple cancellations and postponements, the indie-folk legends out of indie-folk heaven (aka Portland, Oregon), The Decemberists finally made it out for a proper summer tour. They arose from the bunkers, as it were. The tour brought them around to Beak and Skiff Apple Orchards in LaFayette, NY, which has emerged as a bit of an indie-folk heaven of its own this summer.
In a pre-tour tweet, lead singer Colin Meloy threatened to not end their show with “Mariner’s Revenge Song” as they had done countless times over countless years. Indeed, they did not play it this night, nor have they all tour. Three years off the road with no album to promote brought forth quite a varied set list.
They dug back to their first album for set opener “Leslie Anne Levine,” a ghostly tale brightened by a beautiful acoustic mix of upright bass, accordion and pedal steel. From there they jumped straight ahead to “Sucker’s Prayer” off of their latest release, 2018’s I’ll Be Your Girl. There was no “Mariner,” but “Leslie” and the “Sucker” set the stage for a show full of other characters, both real and imagined, like only Meloy and the Decemberists can present.
“Song for Myla Goldberg” brought to life the novelist in song, including the site-appropriate refrain, “I know New York, I need New York, I know I need unique New York.” Sure it’s meant to be the City but what’s more unique than a concert in an apple orchard in upstate New York? Later the Lin-Manuel Miranda penned “Ben Franklin’s Song” explored the historical U.S. figure in hilariously vulgar fashion, “Do you know who the fuck I am? I am Poor-Richard’s-Almanack-writing Benjamin Fuckin’ Franklin!”
Amidst the clever lyrics, musical highlights were abound. Jenny Conlee and Chris Funk squeezed tasty piano and guitar licks into every nook and cranny of “Down By the River.” Newest touring member Lizzy Ellison filled in a lot of gaps on keys, guitar, banjo and vocals. She also brought the house down with hauntingly incredible singing on “The Wanting Comes in Waves.” Funk once again shined bright, as the LEDs seemed to pierce right through him, with some all-out shredding on “Severed.” The full power of the band came together nicely on the plodding and beautiful “California One” which extended with a nice mellow groove that morphed it’s way to set closer “Youth and Beauty Brigade.”
It seems impossible for artists to abstain from including the surrounding apple trees into their shows when playing Beak and Skiff, and indeed Meloy picked “June Hymn” to kick off the encore for its orchard-appropriateness, singing: “A barony of ivy in the trees / Expanding out its empire by degrees / And all the branches burst abloom / In the boom.” But perhaps even more appropriate was the line: “We’ll fill our mouths with cinnamon from the show closing “Sons and Daughters.” The show ended with the whole crowd singing and swaying along to “Here all the bombs, fade away.” And the night faded away, at the early hour of 9:30pm.
Georgian folk singer Jake Xerxes Fussell set out on the seemingly impossible task: opening for The Decemberists in a large field on a large stage, a man, his voice and his guitar, the short brim on his askew hat no match for the setting sun beaming directly into his eyes. But from the opening notes of “Jump For Joy,” his uniquely folksy voice and uniquely intricate finger picking on his six-string Fender, zoned the gathering crowd to attention. He pulled songs from relative obscurity and made them his own, like the Georgia Sea Island Singers’ “Raggy Levy” and Jean Richie’s “Swing and Twirl Jubilee.” The only problem with the set was it’s length, just as it got going it was over. With the concert over at 9:30pm it seems there was plenty of time for more.
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