Recap The Decemberists at Riverside Theater

If you’re a proud hater of contemporary indie-rock—particularly the genre’s bookish, public radio-friendly wing—you’re likely a vocal critic of The Decemberists. For several years now, The Decemberists have been singled out for being a “safe” and “milquetoast” version of so-called underground music by the same people that get riled up about the popularity of thoroughly innocuous groups like Fleet Foxes and Vampire Weekend. It’s dubious criticism on many levels, and also grossly unfair to a group that’s come by its success honestly, via constant touring and a series of progressively popular albums released over the course of nearly a decade.

Saturday’s show at Riverside Theater probably wouldn’t convert the band’s detractors, but it definitely put anti-Decemberists sentiment in perspective. Anyone who’s not overly invested in aggressively huffing and puffing about how indie music ain’t dirty ’n’ dangerous no more will see that this is one of the most engaging live acts in rock at the moment, with a healthy back catalog of folk-pop gems to draw from. It helps that The Decemberists are now touring behind a fine new album, The King Is Dead, the group’s most likable record since its standard-bearing 2002 debut, Castaways And Cutouts. Scaling back on the prog-rock excesses of ’06’s The Crane Wife and ’09’s The Hazards Of Love, head Decemberist Colin Meloy crafted a loving (and unapologetically brazen) rip-off of R.E.M.’s mid-’80s period with The King Is Dead, and the directness and melodic immediacy of his recent songwriting played a big part in making Saturday’s concert such a constant delight.

But no matter what record The Decemberists are touring behind, the group has earned a reputation for top-flight chops and a charmingly self-effacing and relaxed stage presence. A far cry from the band’s reputation as pretentiously studious scholars of 19th century anachronisms, The Decemberists affect an in-concert persona that borrows equally from the self-conscious geekiness of They Might Be Giants and the tireless showmanship of Bruce Springsteen. “The Mariner’s Revenge Song” is their “Rosalita,” an extended story song that twists and turns itself into an inevitable live highlight, complete with boisterous audience participation and sweat-drenched guitar players rocking themselves to their knees.

Loose enough to launch into an impromptu cover of Phil Collins’ “In The Air Tonight,” yet also disciplined enough as a bandleader to navigate around mini-epics like “The Bagman’s Gambit,” Meloy has really matured into a clever and commanding frontman, backed by a band that’s supple, smart, and seemingly better than ever after an already impressive career.