Decemberists, Knoxville & Nashville

The last two days have been great. I was able to catch the Decemberists in both Knoxville and Nashville. The two shows were in really different theaters. In Knoxville, they played the Tennessee Theater, a place where you’d be just as likely to see an opera. It had two levels where everyone had a great view. From the top level we could easily see the stage and were able to sit the whole time, a luxury at a rock concert. In Nashville at City Hall all the tickets were general admission with barely any standing room. My friends from Vanderbilt found a great spot right near the stage. The feel of the second show was entirely different. Perhaps it was because I was closer, but I really think the fact that everyone was crammed in took the energy level up a notch. At one point, Colin Meloy, the lead singer, put the band to sleep and had the entire crowd sit on the floor and be quiet.

Gillian Welch, an amazing blue grass singer, came out for two songs. It was a lot of fun to see two great artists play together. download here, 100mb.

Both nights they played the Mariner’s Revenge for an encore. It’s definitely one of their most entertaining tracks. If you haven’t heard it, the story goes like this, two men are in the belly of a whale when one tells the other the story of how their “lives intertwine”. Shortly after a boy father dies, his mother takes a young new lover who leaves her saddled with debt. On her deathbed the boy’s mother asks him to find this evil man and get revenge. After many years the now grown boy hears about a sailor who matches the description, so he decides to hunt him down. He sets sail with a band of privateers, after several months they find the ship and as they’re about to attack, a giant whale attacks both ships, kills the crew of both leaving only the boy and the sailor, then the boy tells him the story of hunting him down to get revenge. download here, 200mb.