Dramatic mythology plays out, followed by a mirthful second set – The Decemberists’ show is a triumphant display of indie rock grandeur.

Colin Meloy is well known for his song-crafting and composing abilities, he is an astute writer with a prodigious imagination and a flourish for dramatic delivery.

It was no surprise that The Decemberists’ stage show would be anything but moody and dramatic. The newest album from the Portland, Ore. indie rock outfit called The Hazards of Love is an epic poem set to music. The show last night at Universal Orlando’s Hard Rock Café was a beautiful and grand display of rock theatre. The first set follows the album and storyline front to back.

As Jenny Conlee, keyboardist and accordion player, said in a phone interview “It’s a love story between two star crossed lovers who fall in love but the hero’s mother who is an evil fairy queen doesn’t want her son to be with this mortal woman”. You can read the entire interview here – PBPulse speaks with Jenny Conlee from The Decemberists.

The hero is William and his forbidden love is Margaret. Over the course of Hazards the tragic story unfolds. William’s mother sets a beast called the Rake onto the couple and he steals Margaret away. William has to go and rescue her whilst defeating the Rake. But the effort is futile as they realize there is no way to escape his mother’s disapproval. They decide the only thing they can do is drown themselves together in a river as the tragic “Hazards of Love 4” proclaims “So let’s be married here today / these rushing waves to bare our witness / and we will lye like river stones rolling only where it takes us.”

Colin has recruited two incredible vocal talents in Becky Stark ( of Lavender Diamond) and Shara Worden (of My Brightest Diamond). Stark plays Margaret and this night she was dressed in a green dress with a laurel head-band – she looked the part of a wood nymph befitting the character. Stark’s sweet voice captured the desperate wanting and pain of her forbidden love and subsequent capture and abuses by forces beyond her control. Worden’s role as the evil queen could not have been any better suited – with her pixyish look, closely cropped pitch black hair, black and silver outfit, porcelain skin and wicked smile she played well the part of a nefarious immortal. Her powerful tremolo voice soared ominously over songs like “The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid”.

Listen to “The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid”
[audio:http://pbpulse.com/audio/08 - The Wanting Comes in Waves_Repaid.mp3]

After they played the entire album I expected that the show was over, but I was pleasantly surprised as they announced they would take a quick break to return with more. I was giddy with expectation.

They came back on stage and broke into “The Sporting Life” which Colin prefaced with the fact that this was auto biographical about one of their band members. On the second set they switched the mood to playful as Colin frequently joked with the crowd. Things got intimate and less formal. Colin dusted off some old songs like “The Chimbley Sweep” which he confessed was auto-biographical with a smirk. He even sang a song that he admitted was his worst song ever called “Dracula’s Daughter”. He went off on an improvised story about writing that song and its consequences “The quill, feathered pen I use to write all my songs fell to the ground and God wept a single tear that took fifty years to reach the earth.” He showed he was comfortable of making fun of himself and how he writes like he lives in the 19th century.

He forgot a few lines on these older ones and laughed through that. He even had a song that he claimed was about Florida that he sang for the “fine village of Universal City Walk”. But despite the casual demeanor they still were a force on songs like “The Cranes Wife #3” and “O Valencia.” They ended the second set with a cover of the Heart song “Crazy On You” where Worden and Stark literally blew the roof off of the place.

This is a video from a show in St. Louis of their “Crazy On You” cover:

Set list

Set #1
Prelude
The Hazards of Love 1 (The Prettiest Whistles Won’t Wrestle the Thistles Undone)
A Bower Scene
Won’t Want for Love (Margaret in the Taiga)
The Hazards of Love 2 (Wager All)
The Queen’s Approach
Isn’t It a Lovely Night?
The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid
An Interlude
The Rake’s Song
The Abduction of Margaret
The Queen’s Rebuke/The Crossing
Annan Water
Margaret in Captivity
The Hazards of Love 3 (Revenge!)
The Wanting Comes in Waves (Reprise)
The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned)

Set #2
Sporting Life
Billy Liar
Eli The Barrow Boy
Crane’s Wife
The Chimbley Sweep
Everything I Try to Do, Nothing Seems To Turn Out Right
Oh Valencia
Crazy on You
Florida Song
Sons and Daughters