Concert Review: The Decemberists At Omaha's Holland Center

Sooooo.... after a road trip of north central Missouri and southern and western Iowa (which might be catalogued in more detail at some later date, I found myself in Omaha, guest of noted author, law school professor, screenwriter, columnist, commentator and raconteur (look it up) Richard Dooling http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dooling. The purpose of my trip was to go see the Decemberists who were playing at the much Vaunted Holland Center in Omaha, which is...pretty sweet I must say. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland_Performing_Arts_Center. The Holland Center is named for Richard “Dick” Holland who was an early investor in Berkshire Hathaway and a great supporter of education and the performing arts. Evidently he kicked in 90 or so million to get the job done. The trip itself had been an adventure through Kirksville to see my son in a performance and then up to Ottumwa (loose meat), Des Moine (the Waveland) and on to Omaha and Hudsons for record Store Day. It was quite a Saturday.

The show was scheduled for a Sunday evening. Sunday is a problematical time to have a concert. It is a school night and there is always, no matter my age that feeling of dread that the weekend is about to end. Added to that was the prospect of a forced march back to the Lou for a 1:30 meeting with a banker and the owner of an electrical contractor that is shutting down (oh the exciting life of the Banking and Bankruptcy lawyer). We spent a little time before the show in Downtown Omaha in the Old Market District. The Old Market district is what is always supposed to happen when a city decides to save it’s historically significant “warehouse districts”. It has apparently worked better here than it has so far in the Lou where we have “The Landing” which is always just one year away from really “getting going” for the last 30 or so years and also in the oddish area west of the ballpark where we have a hotel, a restaurant and a mish mosh in the old but refurbished buildings. It must be a cool part of town because Saddle Creek Records has their headquarters there along with their own music venue, “The Slowdown”. Anyway, Old Market rocks and though much of it was closed you get a feel for what a successful rehab looks like and the city clearly values it.

The show was at 8 and the opener was to be Justin Townes Earle. We got there early and it was clear that this was more akin to an opera house than a rock and roll venue. First floor was an expansive lobby with a large merch table all manned by one girl and a bad charge card processing machine. There was a long line but the decision was that we should buy our posters now which were pretty sweet. Heading up there at 8:03 there was a bar outside the actually performing facility but it was also equally clear that there would be no cocktails inside the room. I remember when they were trying to do that for a while at the Fox in St. Louis for rock shows... it is a non starter. Soooooo, no booze. We went in and were seated by the typical old people volunteers (I recently heard a brilliant piece on the New York Metropolitan Opera gift shop which evidently had a huge old people volunteer shoplifting problem).

Justin Townes Earle is the example of the children of twang rock royalty that actually has a lot of talent. He was appearing ion a minimalist set up of just him, his songs, his guitar and a fiddle player. I do not know who the fiddler was but he was good, but how do you really judge that with a slightly twangy country scion who is singing about murder and addiction. I have seen Justin with a band, and I have seen him play guitar with his band and he can put on a show. he can REALLY play guitar and his lyrics and his voice are both very good. His dad of course had serious heroin addiction and other problems. The songs are all good but they require listening to and when you are waiting for the Decemberists... it just seemed a little too listless for the show that I was expecting and I think....I think that he was the perfect opener in that he was competent, obviously talented, and no one gave a shit. Still, I thought he was a perfect, yet unimpressive opener. Perhaps they had him because the new album is more Americana. Hard to say.

Anyway... he had a quick set and there was a brief intermission. Many of the crowd went out to have a cocktail and I just spent some time looking around the venue. It really is a pretty impressive place. Like the Touhill in St. Louis...but nicer. It was clear that no expense was spared for acoustics. Around 9:00 the lights dimmed and then we heard a voice. A voice claiming to be the Mayor of Portland who was hovering above the venue and asking us to close our eyes and imagine the Pine forests of Oregon... I could not quite get there. And then they came out and the CD cover from the new CD lit up and Colin Meloy came out.

It looked like he had gained a little weight...again. But whatever he had gained it weight he had also gained in stage presence... and they started with a harmonica bleat into the new CD. I was hoping that they would start right off with the first song off the new CD, “Don’t Carry It All”. I love this song because of the Tom Petty like harmonica and the line:
“and you must bear your neighbors burden within reason; and your labors will be borne when all is done”. I love that. But he did not. He started with “Down By The Water”. Also a great song. The new CD “The King Is Dead” is much more accsessable and is not the song cycle epic that he has pretentiously worked over in his last two CD’s. It is a really solid Cd and this Concert showcased it. He had his great band with Chris Funk on guitar and John Moen just playing awesome drums and Jenny Conlee doing keyboards and whatever else was needed. They really are a great band.

And Meloy directs them. Dooling really wanted to hear his favorite song “The Sporting Life” but this is a well rehearsed show and his arrangements are complicated and it does not lend itself to audience requests are deviance from the set list. So they played most of the new CD kicking it off with mournful harmonica burst that starts “Down By The Water”. The new Cd translates pretty well to live but the big favorites were when he got into the back catalogue. He doled out “The Crane Wife I and II and then he played one of my favorites, “The Rakes Song” and also got the famous indie rock sing along with “The Mariners Revenge”.

The show was really well done but in that room with people sitting he could not really get the energy going. he is a pretty affable performer and though he strikes me as someone who I would probably think was pretentious in a bar... he is just really talented, and passionate and hard working. I mean the guy really works hard. I kept waiting to hear “Valencia” and the opener from the New CD “Don’t Carry It All” but it was not to be tonight. He finally got the crowd standing for his encores and we brought them out twice for about a two hour show. An orderly but amused crowd headed out satisfied into the Omaha rain and I looked forward to seeing him again in St. Louis in about 10 days.