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The Decemberists perform "Summersong"

In their five years as a band The Decemberists have ascended to remarkable heights, especially for an idiosyncratic indie band with a favor for richly textured folk rock and eloquently detailed lyricism and storytelling. They’ve moved from playing tiny clubs to large theaters and even proved to be truthier on guitar than politico-pundit Stephen Colbert when they battled him in December on his show, The Colbert Report. 2006’s The Crane Wife (Capitol) —which was one of ARTVOICE’s albums of the year— is their boldest, brightest move yet, with the ever literate singer/songwriter/guitarist Colin Meloy expanding on his wordsmithing and finding inspiration in an ancient Japanese folk tale. It’s perfect that Meloy and company will finally make their Buffalo bow at UB’s Center for the Arts - just a few hundred feet from the Samuel Langhorne Clemens Hall, named for the given name of Mark Twain and home base of one of the nation’s finest English departments. Opening the show is My Brightest Diamond, a.k.a. the opera-trained singer Shara Worden, formerly a backup vocalist for Sufjan Stevens.

Friday, March 30 – 7pm. UB Center for the Arts, North Campus/Amherst (645-ARTS) www.ubcfa. $25

general-$20 students (box office, Ticketmaster)