All week I was trying to find someone to go to The Decemberists and The Head and the Heart concert at PNC Pavilion that took place last night. Finally I found out that a couple of my friends from high school were indeed going, so I made plans to attend the show with them. They had VIP tickets, which allowed us access to a private area with discounted drinks and food along with pre-show entertainment. Around 8pm I headed inside the pavilion to watch the opening act, The Head and the Heart. You may know them from their recent track “Lost In My Mind,” which was played during their short half hour set.

The Head and the Heart are a six piece band featuring violin and piano in addition to the standard guitar, bass, and drum combination. Three of the members provide soaring vocal harmonies, which is the major highlight of their show. All members of the band were very energetic and you could tell that they were enjoying themselves. They closed their set with a great version of “Rivers and Roads,” and then all members of the band stayed on stage to tear down their own gear. It is always neat to see a band on the rise, and they did not disappoint.

Thirty minutes after The Head and the Heart had finished their set, The Decemberists took the stage. After the first or second song front-man Colin Meloy apologized to the audience for his strained vocal chords. I thought he sounded fine, but he must have been in a fair amount of pain. Their concert tonight in Indianapolis was canceled because of this. Missing from the lineup was  Jenny Conlee who is undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer. She plays hammond organ, accordion, melodica, piano, keyboards, and harmonica. Filling in was Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek on fiddle and vocals.

With these issues with the lineup, I still thought that they sounded really good. “Down By the Water” came very early in the set and sounded great. Also played were “The Rake’s Song,” “O Valencia!,” and “This Is Why We Fight” to name a few. Other than the missing accordion on some of the tunes, they all sounded great. Nate Query on bass was especially good. My only problem with the show came when the band finished their set in under an hour! They returned to play a two song encore including Leonard Cohen’s “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye” and then that was it.

I’m sure the vocal strain had something to do with the shortened set, and possibly the lack of energy from the crowd. I noticed that everyone was sitting in one of the three front sections. Or maybe the were too hot in their suits that they were wearing on stage in the dead of summer. Whatever it was that caused them to have an early departure also seemed to bring the band down. At times it seemed as if they were just going through the motions and that’s unfortunate. I hope that I just caught them on a bad night, but I don’t know if I will spend too much money going out of my way to see them again.