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COLIN MELOY
Barrymore Theatre (Madison, WI)
April 23, 2008

(NODEPRESSION.NET) -- Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy's music is often called "literate," in a context or tone which somehow suggests that's a bad thing. These days, with a mis-underestimater finishing up eight years in the White House, a little literacy goes a long way. Especially in college towns such as Madison, where Meloy's responsive audience appeared to be a mixture of University of Wisconsin students or their professors.

As if to poke fun at his bookish persona, Meloy took the stage with a bottle of red wine and goblet in hand, plopping both down on a table covered with a pressed red cloth. His Decemberists bandmates were "back home," the Portland, Oregon, resident told us, "having coffee drinks or playing video games or whatever it is they do while I'm out here hard at work."

The full band heads into the studio this summer to cut a new album. Meanwhile, Meloy appears happy as a lark to have the stage to himself. And while the bulk of his too-short fourteen-song set was made up of Decemberists favorites, halfway into the show he introduced a tune written for the new project, but didn't mention the song's name.

It was hard to tell if the loose presentation was simply what happens during a relaxed solo evening with Colin Meloy, or if it's what happens when Meloy is pooped from carrying the load by himself. What he lacked in focus (one song began, and began again until he found the key he needed), he made up for with individuality. Meloy was out for a good time, and minus the keys, drums, and guitars of the band, he took musical liberties all night, toying with tempo and clowning with arrangements, including a Tin Pan Alley mouth trumpet solo on "The Perfect Crime".

Meloy was in good voice throughout, but solo sets reveal his confidence on guitar. Piercing notes plucked from his slotted-head nylon-string guitar added an air of dementia to "The Sand Hill Butcher". His fills on the twelve-string in "The Sporting Life" included a mock bass solo that turned the song into a show within a show.

Opening act Laura Gibson, a fellow Oregonian, etched out a pleasant enough set of New Waif music. Also a strong guitarist, she hid behind her instrument, never showing her vocal stuff until she returned during Meloy's set to belt out soulful harmony on a cover of Sam Cooke's "Cupid".

-- ANDY MOORE
Copyright c. 2008 No Depression Inc. and/or Andy Moore.
-- (Photograph by Margaret A. Moore)
Copyright c. 2008 No Depression Inc. and/or Margaret A. Moore.