a thousand blushing cherubs wheel above

As much as I love the Decemberists, I only own one of their albums, Her Majesty (until later tonight; I'm going to Amoeba to buy the brand-spanking-new Picaresque). So it came as a slight disappointment to me that they only played three songs from this last night at their show at the marvelous Henry Fonda Theater. Regardless, their performance was fantastic, an altogether fun show. The music and lyrics are so fascinatingly quirky that I wasn't particularly bothered by the fact that I didn't know most of the songs (they're all about pirates, sailors, and gay Victorian soldiers anyway). They've just added Petra Haden on violin, tambourine, and vocals. You may remember her from that dog. or the Weezer b-side "I Just Threw Out The Love Of My Dreams;" I certainly did. She sings like Joni Mitchell, kind of. Comparisons aside, it's a really nice addition to add some vocal layering to the band.
So, as much as I enjoyed the new songs, they didn't get to stuff I know and love until the very very end, closing the set with an appropriately rousing rendition of "Los Angeles, I'm Yours" and a bouncy "Billy Liar" (and "The Mariner's Revenge Song," which is fantastically fun, but not one that I knew). I really dug the encore, a solo performance of "Red Right Ankle" followed by the entire The Tain EP. Mike and Nicole both complained that this was annoyingly and "impolitely" long, but I pointed out that, really, it had only been a two-song encore, just that The Tain is a fifteen-minute song. The contrasting rock-ness of the closer was nice, I thought.
So, booyeah for the Decemberists. Tonight, it's the Mae Shi and Militant Children's Hour at the Smell. Double booyeah to that, even though the Polydactyls aren't playing. Next time, you Smell-y bitches.