Decemberists at the Trent

Hooray! Another entry on my "best music I've recently seen" widget! However, it's probably about time I trimmed it at the other end. Does over a year ago (Herman Dune last January) count as "recently?"Last night was The Decemberists at Trent Students Union. And I thought it was a pretty good night, considering I knew only about one and a half songs of theirs.I am wondering what I can type of value about this band, given nineteen pages of Decemberist mogging already!I've got to do a plug for "Acuarela Records":http://www.acuareladiscos.com at this point. Imagine: It is a dismal wet day in Nottingham in 2005. My mate James is lamenting the lack of decent new music. Meanwhile, Acuarela Records (Acuarela Discos - they're Spanish) keep sending me top recommendations for new interesting music ("P:ano":http://mog.com/max/blog_post/10031 anyone? ). One of these is The Tain by The Decemberists. James dug around a bit and then he fell in love with Picaresque, and bought more of their stuff. I was on a budget, as ever, so I've only listened to a bit on his iPod.As a result of his and others interest in the band, five of us went along last night, to sample their live wares. They were pretty impressive, we all agreed. Colin Meloy is a confident and charismatic frontman, gifted with a voice born to sing folk music, backed by a multi-talented band, and only one beard in sight.And, as is often the case with songs that tell stories, the lyrics cut to the quick, raising emotions such as anger or fierce longing. Anger: _Cheer them on to their rivals_ indeed. Mr Meloy split the crowd down the middle, and had us shouting out the anchorperson's _La de da de da dedadedadeda_ at each other with clenched fists.Longing: _And I've written pages upon pages / Trying to rid you from my bones_.I need more time to write more pages.