My friend Kevin was in town for the weekend from Chicago and he had VIP tickets to Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Later that night Katia, Shawn, Matt and I went to see The Decemberists at Hammerstein Ballroom. Non-stop fun from 3PM to midnight.
We saw Colin Meloy at Town Hall last night. Since I've had a huge boner for The Decemberists the last few months (I named Picaresque my favorite album of 2005), I was excited to hear Meloy sing solo. Shawn mentioned he was expecting Meloy to be either very strange or completely normal (based on the lyrics of some of The Decemberists' songs), and it turns out he's the latter. The show felt very personal and very low key (Meloy kept saying he hoped it felt like we were all around "a campfire") and it was extremely enjoyable.
Aside from the quality content, the sound was excellent. Probably the best I've ever heard in a live performance. I'm not sure why it was so good, but the guitars and vocals sounded clean and vibrant. Adding to that was the fact that Meloy is one of those rare musicians who is capable of sounding near-record quality live. His opening acts were an interesting pair of women, the first (Amy Annelle) was messy and strange and sort of classic in that "musicians say weird things that do not make sense" kind of way, the second (Laura Veirs) was near-perfect and all business. She was almost too good, too clean, but her music was great.
If you like The Decemberists or, well, frankly, good music of any kind, check out this show.
Update: Shawn talks about the show. I agree—my next show will be The Decemberists.