A recent rally in support of President Barack Obama at Portland’s Waterfront Park drew an astonishing seventy-five thousand people. Given that a political rally never puts up such huge numbers and his previous audience record was thirty-five thousand, Obama’s opponents are quick to point out that he must have been helped by the free Decemberists concert that took place before the rally.

While the concert couldn’t have hurt attendance, giving the band credit for drawing in forty thousand people simply doesn’t wash. The Decemberists routinely play venues such as the 9:30 Club in Washington D.C., which holds around twelve hundred patrons. There’s something to be said about the intimacy of the performance, but if the band could sell out a larger venue odds are they wouldn’t play a smaller one. This is corroborated by the fact that another free concert by the band in Chicago brought in, according to the least conservative estimates, only twenty thousand people.

Though the estimates of their drawing power have to be flattering, The Decemberists probably shouldn’t start shopping for stadium pyrotechnics any time soon. Obama, however, should maybe consider building an intimate venue for them when he moves into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. [Pitchfork]