The Decemberists + Oregon Symphony
Two nights in November: all the strings & horns
Remember 2007? Oh, those halcyon days. Barack Obama was still just a junior senator from Illinois then; the housing market was only beginning to melt down. In the midst of all this seismic upheaval, we Decemberists embarked on a short nationwide tour playing our songs with city orchestras. I mostly remember it fondly — hearing our songs played on such a grand scale was never not moving — but by the end of it, we were ready to heave on with our own shows. We’ve had offers to repeat these shows in the intervening years, but we have always demurred.
Until now! It happens that our own local symphony — The Oregon Symphony, natch — has endeared itself with pledges of love and fidelity and we simply could not refuse. And so: The Decemberists will be playing two shows in November with all the bells and whistles and flugelhorns and violas that the Symphony can provide. The shows will be at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall on November 6 & 7 here in Portland, Oregon. We’ll probably play a handful of songs from the ‘07 run (they’re such great scores, it’ll be nice to dust them off), though I think we’ll be having new arrangements drawn up for more recent stuff + some older material that missed the cut the last time around.
These shows go on sale today at 10 am pacific/1 pm eastern via our website. Hope to see you there!
Will you be able to negotiate the rights to release a recording of these performances?
Would love to see a Decemberists Live Home Vol. 2 of this.