Decembrists And Cass Mccombs Metro 10/19
CASS MCCOMBS:
I wasn’t planning on going out Wednesday to tell you the truth. I knew that Cass McCombs was playing, though, and I had this nagging train of thought in the back of my mind that I should put on Prefection and A again and given them a good listen after several months and I was astounded at how great they were. Our original plan was to see him late at the Hideout after seeing him open up for the Decembrists but the Decembrists unfortunately finished too late so we only saw a short thirty-five minute set.
He played a good mix of songs off of these two albums, the highlight for me was “Subtraction” but “City of Brotherly Love” also came off nicely. It was mainly him, a guitar, a girl with a lap drum and a bassist and his voice was a little more wavery than on album but very perfect with more prominent backing female vocals. Clearly, one of the most under-rated folk musicians in this age. Although Prefection is definitely more upbeat than the mellow A. I only wish he had played longer.
Incidentally, before the show, in order to fing out exactly what time he would be going on at the Hideout, I went to the merch booth at the Metro and walked up to the guy there selling Cass’s stuff and said, “Hi…um…are you Cass?” It would have been really cool if Cass just hung out by his merch all laid back and ready to hear compliments like that. But I guess we can’t all be David Gedge. While I was down there, I signed up to be on the mailing list for the Decembrists (I’ve signed up for several mailing lists for bands now and I have never received a single email from them so I am unsure of why I still sign up and why bands still have it as an option.) Anyhow, the girl who was holding the clipboard at the time asked me if I was registered to vote. I said, “Oh yes, very registered!” (like there’s a series of degrees of voter registration. Er…should I put on my Super Voter costume now or wait until Halloween?)
Anyhow, overall a really nice mellow set that made me pine for more that didn’t come. It would be great to see him headline Schubas, although he really deserves to be headlining Logan Square. Ah well, Nick Drake didn’t get the recognition he deserved in his lifetime, either.
THE DECEMBRISTS:
The Decembrists opened with crashing cymbals and macabre and proceeded to sing all five parts of their song The Tain, a sort of epic dramatic story that has a very Nick Cave or Black Heart Procession type of feel to it at times only with entirely different sounding vocals. I listen to it and I can’t help but feel the same as I did when I read Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner for the second time (it didn’t have the same effect on me the first time as the second). It doesn’t have the same story line but the tone is somewhat similar imo.
Each part of The Tain is dark and intense with distinctive vocals and lyrics for the verses and choruses made up of tumultuous instrumentals, especially between the violin and the stand up bass. The imagery in the verses can’t help but haunt you…an example:
The room that you lie in is dusty and hard
Sleeping soft Babies on piles of yards
of gingham, taffeta, cotton, and silk
Your dry hungry mouths cry for your mother’s milk.
After playing the Tain, which left me feeling like I was wandering around the abondoned site of a bizarre circus that had just packed up and left, the Decembrists played mainly songs off their most recent full length, Picturesque. In fact, the only two songs I can recall them playing from Her Magesty were “I Was Meant for the Stage” (the final song of a two song encore) and “Red Right Ankle” which was a song that someone called out and requested and several others joined in with the asking for it. I felt the songs off of Picturesque, which also mainly tell interesting and involved stories, came off better this time than they had at the Intonation Festival (scroll down to the very bottom for Decembrists photos) but this was also an indoor event. Having sold out or at least nearly selling out (I am not sure which it is) two week nights, you couldn’t help but feel they had really come into their own.
The highlights of the show included, the very poetic and touching, “We Both Go Down Together,” and “Eli, the Barrow Boy” Also, “The Engine Driver,” with the re-occurent plea: “If you don’t love me let me go.” and “16 Military Wives,” (which has the best chorus):
...Because America can and America can’t say no.
And America does if America says it’s so.
And the anchor person on TV goes “na na na na na na na na na na na”
As for banter, Sean Nelson frequently asked the audience how they were and encouraged people to be honest if they were just “average.” The amazing violinist Petra Haden at one point high fived the entire first row of the audience. Sean explained that he felt a bit lost in Chicago with his only reference point being the Metro and Schubas. He told us how he kept standing under el trains thinking he had been in that exact spot before then when he really hadn’t.
The best part: As an encore, before playing, “I Was Meant for the Stage,” they played an incredible rendition of ELO’s “Mr. Blue Sky,” (by far my favorite ELO song) complete with perfectly enchanting choral renditions ala Petra and with Sean climbing up a huge amp and attempting to touch the ceiling. I was impressed.