Double the Decemberists, Double the Fun

This should've been posted WEEKS ago. Urgh, I suck.

Summer Camp!

Though it took an hour later than originally planned to drag ourselves out of the house, we finally got on the road for our 2-3 hour venture to Bend for Summer Camp! The drive was relatively nice. . . Mountain-y, forest-y and eventually turned into a midpoint between green-Oregon and desert-Oregon. While checking in to our hotel, I called the Amphitheater to pester them one last time about a press pass they never got back to me about. They connected me to the stage manager, "Big John", where he explained to me that because tour managers weren't involved with the concert, there was no publicity allowed. Fair enough. We ran down to a market, picked up a french roll, garlic spread, disposable camera and tons and tons of bottled Fiji water then headed for the concert.

I had all the water in my infamous "the lift that will never let you down" bag, with a cartoon picture of a woman in a push-up bra. It was after ten minutes of walking and schlepping around blankets and junk in 100 degree weather when we saw the sign reading "no outside food or beverages." At Les Schwab Amphitheater, we allow nothing, not even breathing!. . . So after safely storing everything back into the trunk of my car, we went inside the venue.

Viva Voce, a two person band, kicked off the show. I had heard only a few of their songs before seeing them live and their set went fairly quick and smoothly. I was highly impressed with the drummer. At different points of their set, he had managed to play piano, kazoo and acoustic guitar all along with his drums. Entertaining!

While Pedro the Lion was setting up, I went to go and buy overpriced water bottles and after waiting in line for nearly 15 minutes, to my dismay, they HAD no water. Most likely because at Les Schwab Amphitheater, they want you to be as UNcomfortable as possible.

Pedro the Lion zoomed thru their 30 minutes. Because they were in such a hurry, the two man band came off as very cold and not in to the audience, however, they did play Criticism as Inspiration and Big Trucks, which made it better.

It was about this time where I took notice to how many cameras were flashing off... Which then got me noticing all of the press passes. Naturally I was upset and frustrated with their obvious lack of communication with everyone working there. Let's hope that they get this sorted out since they're wanting this Summer Camp thing to become an annual event...

Then came the reason we drove there, the Decemberists. They opened with a new song, which I found weird, usually it's a song people would know already, and to be honest, it sucked. Then, rather than going on to something recognizeable, they continued to play new things. And by new things, I mean "let's sound like we're in a high school garage band." It was so disappointing! Joann and I slumped further and further down onto our blankets until we heard the catchy Infanta drums.

Death Cab for Cutie came onstage and so did the mosquitoes. We stayed for a few songs, unimpressed and giggling at how overrated they are and then took off.

Decemberists at the Bite!

And what's cuter than an 8 year old with a speech impediment singing Decemberists songs? Just about nothing. Sam and I went to pick Colin up around 3ish and drove a surprisingly quick drive to the Waterfront Park in Portland. So pretty there! Colin immediately started his "let's make Katy laugh until she swears she'll pee her pants" trip when we got out of the car, and continued for the whole night.

We're at the sidewalk crosslight to get to the park when Sam asks Colin if his name is Colon. Colin nudged me, and corrected him. "Well where's Colon?" Sam asked, and everyone around us kind of chuckled. "Riiiiight there!" And he pointed to his tush. Fun!

Anyways, it was only $5 to get in, and all the profit goes to Special Olympics.. Sam got in free, rad! We sat in the 3rd row and a band from Portland called The Kingdom took stage. They were a mix between Coheed and Cambria and Hot Hot Heat, or something like that. The lead singer made me laugh, he looked like a middle-aged man who just got off of the couch, crumbs included.

Then some really dull guy came on. In fact, he was so dull that I don't even remember his (most likely dull) name. Pat somethingorother. He's up there with his guitar and fake drum stomp things and a harmonica and he looks strung out on heroin and his songs were so depressing, monotone and crap. I was convinced my ears were bleeding. But then, during the middle of his set, I nudged Colin after spotting the nerdiest nerd at this nerd festival. His profile looked like Colin Meloy's except his glasses were five times better. He had shorts up past his navel, a fanny pack, a cigar in his mouth and shirt tucked in. He stood up on the front row bench, placed his hand on his side and the other over his eyes, threw his head back and pondered. Colin yelled while pointing "HARK! It's a laaaand pirate!"

Yes!

Finally the Decemberists got on stage. Sam was elated. During their set-up, I made friends with an older couple sitting in front of us. A VERY tall grey-haired guy and his short, frumpy wife. There were these teen-bop girls that kept annoyingly walking inbetween the rows, and when the last girl walked by, I whispered to Sam "Punch her!" Apparantly the wife of the couple thought it was hilarious and began talking about how much she LOOOOVED the Decemberists. Part of me was happy. The other part was in disbelief that that will, no doubt, be me in twenty years.

And then they played and of course sounded wonderful. I was much more impressed from the start with their set. They got to "On the Bus Mall" and ended up pausing after Colin Meloy sings "At the Waterfront Park" due to the crowd cheering. It was cute. Colin Meloy talked about how much he loved Portland and loved being home.

Then they played their so-called last song which was "I was Meant for the Stage" and during the end they proceeded to break-the-shit out of their instruments. Sam was upset they didn't play the Mariner's Revenge, but of course, they shortly returned. This is where the fun starts. Colin Meloy had us practice screaming like we're being swallowed by a whale, and then they started the song. Sam's up on the bleachers dancing around, the older lady in front of me is dancing around, I look back and EVERYONE'S dancing around to the sweet accordian riff (yeah!). Right before we get to the swallowed by a whale part, the crowd started screaming. I looked back and someone set loose this GIANT blue ball (snickers) that was over a booth, by popping the milk jugs. So the Decemberists end up laughing because the crowd's moving this giant blue thing that ironically looks somewhat like a whale towards them. Ohhh it was fun. This is a long paragraph.

That sums up the Decemberists part. A majority of the crowd was there for the Violent Femmes but because of the drive and the lateness, we had to leave to get back home at a decent hour. And who would of thought leaving would be so hard? We spent a good thirty minutes surfing thru drunk people and/or standing completely still. Colin started screaming he was having contractions which led me to believe he had Moses-like skills, until people realized who was screaming it.

Nevertheless, Decemberists at a less expensive cost, closer venue and with less bands is much more preferrable than a complete load of Les Schwab crock.

Phew.