The Decemberists (Photo by Holly Andres)
Chamber pop collective The Decemberists hit the road for a summer tour with a show at Wolf Trap on Wednesday, Aug. 24, in their Arise from the Bunkers Tour.
Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy described the upcoming tour in a note to fans:
“We’re wiping away the accumulated grime from windows and revealing, for the first time in a very long time, the glimmer of sunlight. We see the green dappled leaves, the soughing tree limbs, the pearly clouds dotting a wide sky. Is this re-emergence? Perhaps!
“In celebration of such an event, we Decemberists felt a bit antsy to revisit the wide-open road, and do it sometime in the summer months, where we can sometimes be outside. Ergo: we are proud to announce The Decemberists’ first tour since — god, what was it — 2018, I think. ARISE FROM THE BUNKERS! TOUR 2022.
“We’ll be applying our rusty fingers, feet, and vocal cords to songs from all across the width and breadth of our catalogue — and, should the muses oblige, we might try a few new ones out as well.”
Watch The Decemberists perform “The Island” live for a 20th anniversary streaming concert in 2021 on YouTube:
For 20 years, The Decemberists have been one of the most original, daring, and thrilling American rock bands. Founded in the year 2000 when singer, songwriter, and guitarist Colin Meloy moved from Montana to Portland, Oregon, and met bassist Nate Query, keyboardist Jenny Conlee, and guitarist Chris Funk, The Decemberists’ distinctive brand of hyperliterate folk-rock set them apart from the start with the release of their debut EP 5 Songs in 2001. After making their full-length debut with Castaways and Cutouts in 2002, the band signed with Kill Rock Stars for the release of the acclaimed albums Her Majesty the Decemberists (2003) and Picaresque (2005), which was produced by Chris Walla. The 2004 EP The Tain — an 18-minute single-track epic — made the band’s grand creative ambitions clear.
Around this time the band’s permanent line-up fell into place with the arrival of drummer John Moen, and they made the unexpected leap to Capitol Records for their first major label album in 2006. Fans’ concerns of whether the band would alter their trademark sound quickly vanished when they delivered their most ambitious and audacious record to date in The Crane Wife, a song cycle produced by Walla and Tucker Martine (who would become a longtime creative partner) that added elements of ‘70s prog, hard rock and even quasi-disco to their palette.
Three years later, The Hazards of Love — a full-length concept album based on Meloy’s idea for a stage musical — was a Top 20 hit. In 2011, they topped themselves yet again with their first No. 1 album, The King Is Dead, which featured the GRAMMY-nominated song “Down By The Water.” After their 2015 album What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World, which included the No. 1 AAA radio hit “Make You Better,” The Decemberists changed up their sound and explored new approaches to making music on their eighth studio album I’ll Be Your Girl (2018) with producer John Congleton.
The Decemberists
w/ Jake Xerxes Fussell
Wednesday, Aug. 24
Gates @ 6:30pm
$50-$72
All ages