Dowdy Indie Chick Swoons Over Colin

It must be the costumes, man...

In other words, Colin Meloy is the type of guy that a girl like me—gawky, unathletic, fearful of prom queens—is supposed to find dreamy, and I do. So did all the other casually dressed, slightly dowdy indie rock girls in the audience at Fez. We swooned and sighed as Meloy played a lengthy set of Decemberists favorites and Morrissey covers, interspersed with jocular banter and references to his girlfriend (grrr!)—the illustrator Carson Ellis, who is responsible for the band's whimsical album artwork. Meloy ended the set with a hushed cover of Cheap Trick's "Southern Girls," which he introduced as "an old folk song." Then we all went home and blogged about it.

Village Voice