We should do this more often

We went and saw the Decemberists on Friday night as a grown-up outing. It reminded me of Justin's one-time post about the Arcade Fire rocking his face off. It was the best show I've been to in a long while.
At the beginning I had a twinge of apprehension because as I stood in the packed auditorium, I realized that I only knew three people at this show (four if you count the acquaintance who was clearly on a date and pretending not to know any of us), while I would have been part of a much larger crowd if this had been Cat's Cradle instead of the Showbox. The opening act, Cass McCombs, was pleasant if unremarkable.
The Decemberists set began with The Tain and built steam from that point forward. I had previously declined an offer of earplugs thinking that accordians couldn't possibly be that loud, which was a mistake. An old professor of mine (Performance Studies) used to encourage us to be "thrummed" by art--to let our guard down, be in the moment, and transcend the room, the floor, the instrument, etc., both in creating and consuming art. At the point at which Colin Meloy had the audience silent, sitting on the floor in the aspect of eager kindergardeners at story time, I knew we had been thrummed.