The Decemberists @ Barrowlands, 5 Mar

Portland's Decemberists have been suitably bemused by their arrival at The Barrowlands on a Saturday afternoon. Colin Meloy's misapprehension of Glasgow as a 'flea market populated by football hooligan' is perhaps understandable given the venue's location. They're touring The King Is Dead, something of a return to the familiar and much loved folk-indie sound of their earlier albums after a somewhat off-putting foray into the over-extended concept drama of The Hazards of Love, which riffed where perhaps fans sought melody.

But this is a canny band, and not one about to spank their load immediately on arrival. The first ten minutes at least are worryingly pedestrian, with Meloy playing the best part of a song flat on his back, but this seems, in retrospect, simply a gentle and confident  feeling of their way into a superb set for the 'fellow Barrowlandians' as Meloy dubs us.

Things pick up with a rousing July, July and a thumping Rake's Song which sees a raft of stand toms battered by the band. The partially REM-inflected tunes from the new album, particularly Down By The Water and This Is Why We Fight build on this and the set as a whole takes in pretty much their entire career, with its simple acoustic centre buttressed by harmonies, piano, pedal steel, accordians and tales of barrow boys, infanticide and the seasons.

After the epically rollicking am-dram sea shanty of first encore closer The Mariner's Revenge Song, the night finishes, sweetly and slightly unusually, with a gentle breeze through the balladic June Hymn before the band bid us goodbye and the uplifted Barrowlandians drift out into the distinctly unsummery evening.