ABOUT THE DECEMBERISTS
For over 20 years The Decemberists have been one of the most original, daring, and thrilling American rock bands. Founded in the year 2000 when singer, songwriter, and guitarist Colin Meloy moved from Montana to Portland, Oregon and met bassist Nate Query, keyboardist Jenny Conlee, and guitarist Chris Funk, The Decemberists’ distinctive brand of hyperliterate folk-rock set them apart from the start with the release of their debut EP 5 Songs in 2001. After making their full-length debut with Castaways and Cutouts in 2002, the band signed with Kill Rock Stars for the release of the acclaimed albums Her Majesty the Decemberists (2003) and Picaresque (2005), which was produced by Chris Walla. The 2004 EP The Tain – an 18-minute single-track epic – made the band’s grand creative ambitions clear.
Around this time the band’s permanent line-up fell into place with the arrival of drummer John Moen, and they made the unexpected leap to Capitol Records for their first major label album in 2006. Fans’ concerns of whether the band would alter their trademark sound quickly vanished when they delivered their most ambitious and audacious record to date in The Crane Wife, a song cycle produced by Walla and Tucker Martine (who would become a longtime creative partner) that added elements of ‘70s prog, hard rock and even quasi-disco to their palette. The album was met by wide acclaim from The New York Times, Rolling Stone, SPIN, Stereogum, and was named Best New Music by Pitchfork.
Three years later, The Hazards of Love – a full-length concept album based on Meloy’s idea for a stage musical – was a Top 20 hit. In 2011, they topped themselves yet again with their first #1 album, The King Is Dead, which featured the GRAMMY-nominated song “Down By The Water.” After their 2015 album What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World, which included the #1 AAA radio hit “Make You Better,” The Decemberists changed up their sound and explored new approaches to making music on their eighth studio album I’ll Be Your Girl (2018) with producer John Congleton.
Now the enduring indie band returned in 2024 with their first new music in six years, As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again. In many ways, this album feels like an aptly titled renewal for The Decemberists, realized by returning to familiar routes of creation with the ever- updating perspective of now. “More than any other album,” writes Stereogum, “this album feels like a career summary of everything The Decemberists are and have been, juxtaposing stripped-down folk and buoyant pop songs against lengthy monoliths.” They are produced by Tucker Martine and rendered by a band with a true sense of purpose and meaning. The Decemberists have been here before, but they’ve rarely if ever felt so directed and focused, so able to condense some bit of truth into a few compulsive verses. As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again is the first full-length release on YABB Records, the band’s own label, after a run of nearly two decades with Capitol. As they were once, here are the Decemberists again, now an independent band empowered by singing stories that sound instantly familiar and convey some bit of hard-won wisdom.
On the lawn shows at Concerts at Point of the Bluff
Our unique outdoor stage setup is meant to not have a bad spot in the house. All tickets are general admission on the lawn to experience the concert. You are welcome to enjoy the concert from standing space in the lawn or to bring your own chair or blanket and set up a spot on the grass slope, where you’ll still enjoy stage views and beautiful Keuka Lake in the background.
