Colin Meloy at Town Hall
I saw Colin Meloy at Town Hall Thursday. He played mostly Decemberists stuff. Highlights were "We Both Go Down Together," "Engine Driver," "Shankhill Butchers" (a new song about a gang of killers with knives), and "Apology Song." He also did a few songs with John Wesley Harding from his Shirley Collins cover EP. He had a six string and a twelve string on stage. A table with a lamb statuette named Erick, a skull named Sheryl, and a schooner ship named The Maya Angelou was also on stage for company. He told a couple of stories and even asked for some visualization of a campfire in the desert while he played “Bandit Queen” during the encore.
A really good story and more pics after the jump.
Best of all, he told the extended back story to "Apology Song." For those who don't know, this song is about a bike he was borrowing from his friend Stive (Steven in the song) who was in England for a few months. The bike, Madeleine, is stolen and Colin writes this song, which he played over the phone, to make good with his friend. A year or so goes by, Colin is back in Missoula Montana and ran into another friend who is riding the bike. Apparently, this guy found the bike a week ago in a dumpster. Colin commandeers the bike, against the will of his friend, and takes it back to Portland to bestow the bike to her rightful owner. There is a big surprise party to unveil Madeleine’s return. Everybody is happy until a few months later when Colin is helping his friend Stive move. The bike was on a rack attached to the back of a big van, which Colin happened to be driving. There were some problems parking the van and he backs up into a car, crushing the bike. Now the crumpled bike hangs in Stive's house as a reminder of the whole debacle.
