Colin Meloy drinks his way to the top
Colin Meloy is known for his unruly and drunken stage antics when touring with his band The Decemberists.
For his third solo tour, there was no exception.
As Meloy faltered, laughed and paused his way through his performance on Saturday night with wine bottle in hand, the audience whooped and applauded in utter approval at his state.
The majority of the audience could legally drink, and as such, only a small portion of the venue was left for underage fans of Meloy. The unusual age segregation for the Fox Theatre made some of the younger audience members say they were angry because they had as much of a right to be up close to Meloy as anyone who could drink.
“They have so much free space down there,” said Sydney Toliver, 18, a Western State College student who drove from Gunnison for the show. “We just want to see Colin up close, and I bet there’s a lot of people who would agree. I’m all for breaking down the barriers of oppression.”
Laura Gibson opened the show with a minimalist approach. Standing alone on an unadorned stage with only her acoustic guitar, Gibson played a sting of folksy lullabies that captivated the audience in awed silence.
Though her style was slow and quiet, she gave charming anecdotes that held the audience’s attention and broke the serious tone of her music.
“I have had a lot of spare time on this tour, and while spending more time on the Internet, I discovered Wikipedia and started to explore it a bit,” Gibson said. “I found out that each state has a state dance. I forgot to look up Colorado, but if it’s anything like 90 percent of other states it’s the square dance.”
Gibson’s quiet and humble demeanor was a stark contrast to Meloy’s stage presence. As he ambled onto the dim stage and spent five minutes tuning his guitar and adjusting his microphone to his high standards, humble could hardly describe the mood.
During the first two songs of the performance, Meloy forgot the lyrics and was only steered on track by audience members singing along. He took the lead of other performers and blamed the altitude.
“I love coming to Colorado because I can blame so much on the altitude,” Meloy said. “My guitar isn’t tuning- it’s the altitude. This wine is hitting too fast- it’s the altitude. Lyrics? The altitude.”
The set list consisted mainly of songs from The Decemberists. Unable to recreate the backup band alone, Meloy utilized the audience as a living band and made them sing the parts of various instruments. “Billy Liar,” “The Sporting Life,” “O Valencia!,” and “The Mariner’s Revenge Song” engaged the audience the most.
When Meloy forgot lines, he did not hesitate to ask for help. When he would take another drink, the audience cheered for him to do more. After establishing a stage presence throughout his career that relied on wine to fuel the fun, the audience expected nothing less when entering the venue.
It came as no surprise, then, when Meloy began introducing a pile of objects on a table on stage. Toys and random objects had names and stories, and Meloy treated them as a surrogate band while on his solo tour.
“Here is Consuela the mermaid, clutching a length of rope,” Meloy said as he introduced the first figurine. “This is a 100 percent quartz crystal, bought for too much money, possessing electromagnetic powers that smells like Nag Champa. Next is a framed picture of a sock puppet, named Alex. And last is a half-eaten, crumpled up bag of M&Ms named Blaine.”
Contact Campus Press staff reporter Carolyn Michaels at Carolyn.michaels@colorado.edu.
