[CANCELLED: June 12, 2018] M. Ward/The Decemberists
S. and I love The Decemberists. They are probably one of our favorite bands. Despite this, we haven’t seen them live all that much. In part because they went on a huge long hiatus after releasing one of my favorite albums (why didn’t I see them on that tour?).
We have seen them twice (only!) and each show was great in its own way.
But when they announced a new tour with a date in Philly AND New Jersey, I was sure to get tickets for both shows.
They were scheduled to play at the Mann Center on June 7. The Mann is an amazing venue but it is a super duper pain in the butt to get to. So, we decided that since we had tickets to the show in Red Bank, we would blow off the Mann show. Astonishingly I couldn’t sell the tickets, so I just ate the price. Dang.
Turns out Colin’s voice was giving him trouble and that show wasn’t his best. Although they did wind up playing a great set list.
Nevertheless we were very excited for our show and hoped his voice would be perfect five days later.
Then today at 3:30 this afternoon we received this email.
The Decemberists event scheduled for Tuesday, June 12 at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, NJ has been cancelled due to Colin Meloy’s ongoing voice issues.
We effectively missed two shows of one of our favorite bands in a week.
Here’s the official word
“I have a heavy, heavy heart writing this. Because of my voice loss, we’ve been forced to cancel or reschedule the next five shows of this tour. I’m so, so sorry to those of you who were attending concerts we were unable to reschedule. I know how much it sucks to have a show cancel on you. I don’t know what to say other than: we’ll return to your area in the future, and we’ll put on a great show.
“What’s been happening over the last nearly two weeks is the stuff of a singer’s nightmare. I don’t know what started it or what particular events conspired to create this perfect storm of voice strain — at the beginning of this tour leg I was feeling healthy and excited about the upcoming shows. Allergies? Altitude? Midwestern dryness? Whatever it was, it created a situation in my larynx that could not withstand the rigors of our particular tour schedule. My voice started leaving me in Toronto and I just never got enough rest on the days off to bounce back; it would get a little better after a few days rest, only to buckle again after a couple shows.
“During these last two weeks, I’ve seen five doctors in three states. Three ENTs, a speech pathologist and a laryngologist. I desperately wanted to get well. I desperately wanted to do these shows.
“I love singing. As a shy kid, discovering my singing voice was like breaking free of a clay that surrounded me. I cannot describe to you the sort of despondency I feel when I lose it. Not only is it robbed from me, but it’s robbed from this band. It makes everything jutter to a stop. I tried to just put my head down and do the shows, but I was beginning to feel more and more that we were shortchanging you, the fans, the audience. We were doing shorter sets, we were dropping songs that had me singing at too high of a range for too long. Then when my voice started failing, we just kept going. But we were doing everyone who came to shows a disservice. We were not meeting the standards of what I like to think is a pretty high bar for a Decemberists show.
“The good news? While the first ENT thought he saw nodules on my vocal folds, I’m happy to report that that diagnosis was overturned by the three subsequent scopers. The consensus was fatigue, strain and irritation of the vocal folds. Nothing that can’t be healed with vocal exercise. I just need rest.
“This is also a great wake up call for me. Clearly gone are the days where I can just leap on stage, bottle of wine in hand, and start belting out high Ds & Es for two hours straight after the most desultory of warm-ups. I have been working with professionals to develop a new tour regimen that will help my voice withstand the rigors of tour. Warm-ups and diet, being conscientiousness about my voice use between shows — all part of a constellation of things I can do.”
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