The Decemberists Concerts Setlist

The Decemberists is an American indie rock band. They were formed in 2000 in Portland, Oregon. The founding members were lead vocalist Colin Meloy (born in 1974 in Helena, Montana), lead guitarist Chris Funk (1974, Valparaiso, Indiana), bassist Nate Query (1974, Bellevue, Washington), keyboardist Jenny Conlee (1971, Seattle, Washington), and drummer Ezra Holbrook.

In 2000, Meloy left his indie rock band in Montana and moved to Portland, Oregon. There, he met Query and Conlee, the three of whom got a gig scoring a silent movie together. Joined by Funk (who was a fan of Meloy's old Montana band) and Holbrook, they formed the new band called "The Decemberists''. The name refers to a revolt in Imperial Russia in 1826. They had to perform early The Decemberists concert shows on the street for change to fund their first self-produced EP (Extended Play), "5 Songs", which was finished in 2001.

Their first full studio album came out in May 2002, with the title "Castaways and Cutouts". It received generally positive reviews in the music media, Pitchfork Magazine even put it in their The Best 100 Albums 2000-2004 list, but it failed to gain any significant commercial traction. However, after its release, they started regularly doing The Decemberists concert shows in venues across the West Coast. In 2005, they produced a music video for their single "16 Military Wives" which was exclusively shared on the peer-to-peer file sharing software BitTorrent. The same year, they got signed by the major label Capitol Records.

The first album in The Decemberists discography that made it onto Billboard 200 was their third one, "Picaresque'' from March 2005. Overall, they have put out 8 studio albums. The best selling one among them is "The King is Dead'' from January 2011, which sold around 500,000 copies and actually topped the Billboard 200 chart. Meanwhile, the latest new The Decemberists album came out in March 2018, with the title "I'll Be Your Girl".

The biggest The Decemberists hits to date are "The Mariner's Revenge Song" (2005), "Down By the Water" (2011), and "Severed" (2018). Their line-up has stayed relatively intact compared to the original, with the only change being John Moen replacing Holbrook on the drums.