(NEWARK, NJ) -- New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) presents The Decemberists 20th Anniversary Celebration, a virtual event on Sunday April 18 & April 25, 2021 at 8:00pm and will be available to view On-Demand for two weeks following the stream. Join The Decemberists for two special virtual performances — each with their own unique setlist.

Tickets to the virtual performances are available for purchase online from $25 - $75. Bundles include a VIP experience post-show (featuring additional performances and a Q+A with the band) and a limited- edition series poster illustrated by Carson Ellis.

The Decemberists are a folk rock band that formed in Portland, Oregon. The band is made up of Colin Meloy (vocals, guitar), Chris Funk (guitar, mandolin, dulcimer, pedal steel guitar), Jenny Conlee (organ, piano, accordion), Nate Query (electric bass, acoustic bass, cello) and John Moen (drums). They were hoping to celebrate their anniversary with live shows, but the pandemic changed their plans.  

On the band's website they wrote about the 20th anniversary shows. "It was with truly heavy hearts that we announced the cancellation of this summer’s tour. We really had hoped that we’d be able to play in front of you sweaty, singing thousands when we postponed the dates initially — and while there is every reason to believe that this pandemic may soon be a strange and bitter memory (yay vaccines! yay science!), it just isn’t wise to gather together in our sweaty, singing multitudes *quite* yet.

"And while we were keen to celebrate our twentieth — and then twenty-first — year in this world as a band called The Decemberists, it seemed somehow strange and ill-fated to once more kick the whole thing into 2022. You’ll remember there had been some dispute as to whether the band started in 2000 or 2001, so it didn’t seem so far-fetched to have it all go down in 2021. In 2002, however, there is no dispute that we had long been a band, with our names on t-shirts and CD booklets and everything. We were old hat in Portland, even, at that time. “Oh, The Decemberists,” I recall hearing a cynical record store clerk mutter to his co-worker after I’d dropped off a flyer in mid ’02, “They play all the time.”

"So no: it’s time to move on, to better and stranger and newer things. Something will go down in summer 2022, but it will be the ushering in of a new era and not so much recognizing the eras that have passed.

"BUT HAVE NO FEAR: In its place, we have decided to host a special celebration of our twenty or twenty one orbits ‘round the sun in a series of STREAMING CONCERTS! We’ve assembled a career-spanning setlist, the ups and the downs, the longs and the shorts, the quiets and the louds, and plan to perform them live over the course of three evenings, streamed directly into your living room, parlor, bunkhouse, or observatory."

New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), located at One Center Street in downtown Newark, N.J., is America’s most diverse performing arts center, and the artistic, cultural, educational and civic center of New Jersey – where great performances and events enhance and transform lives every day. NJPAC brings diverse communities together, providing access to all and showcasing the state’s and the world’s best artists while acting as a leading catalyst in the revitalization of its home city. Through its extensive Arts Education programs, NJPAC is shaping the next generation of artists and arts enthusiasts. NJPAC has attracted nearly 10 million visitors (including over 1.7 million children) since opening its doors in 1997, and nurtures meaningful and lasting relationships with each of its constituents.