Atlanta (CNN) -- Nate Query is having what he calls a "Spinal Tap moment."
While their opening act performs, The Decemberists' bass player has somehow locked himself out of the backstage area.
Query good-naturedly laments the situation, then heads toward the lobby, looking for someone who can reunite him with the rest of the band: singer-songwriter Colin Meloy, guitarist Chris Funk, multi-instrumentalist Jenny Conlee and drummer John Moen.
While some of the Decemberists are dealing with personal struggles and a self-imposed hiatus looms for all the band members, Query's temporary lockout is just about the only thing that's gone wrong for them professionally in 2011.
The Decemberists' concerts have sold out in most cities, with the Portland, Oregon-based band highlighting songs from "The King is Dead," which topped the Billboard 200 album chart in January.
Aside from packing fans into theatres from coast to coast, the group recently has been booked in some plum slots, from May's New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival to the upcoming Bonnaroo, Telluride Bluegrass Festival and Newport Folk Festival, which they are headlining on July 30.
The audiences now include more than just stalwarts who followed Meloy's maritime obsession and 12-minute epics on earlier albums. A new cohort of "King is Dead" enthusiasts are coming to hear stripped-down "Pacific Northwestern folk songs," as Meloy calls them, including the radio-friendly singles "Down by the Water" and "This is Why We Fight."
While most critics have raved about "The King is Dead," some people have bemoaned the move toward accessibility. The Decemberists historically have reveled in the obscure and highbrow: The band was named after a group of Russian rebels from the 1820s.
"The King is Dead" comes on the heels of 2009's ambitious "The Hazards of Love," a "one story, one narrative, the whole record, 60 minutes rock opera," as Query says, which featured a disturbingly catchy single, "The Rake's Song," about a man slaying his family.
Meloy wants to set the record straight: Most of his lyrics are not autobiographical.
"I don't live in a Victorian mansion with a carriage and four horses, or murder children," says Meloy.
"I think I have a pretty normal life. It's important to know that so many of the songs, these are fictions, little short stories. They have little to do with me."
Query concurs, "Colin's more normal than his lyrics would suggest."
Despite hardcore fans' love of Meloy's increasingly intricate music and stories, the songwriter says that after exploring British folk music, prog-rock and metal over the past few years, it was time to "zero out" when he began working on "The King is Dead."
"Part of that zeroing out was just reconnecting with R.E.M., reconnecting with these bands that I loved early on. And so I started working on the songs and they sounded very R.E.M.-y," Meloy recalls.
With that in mind, the band invited fellow Portland resident and R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck to play on the album. He appears on three songs marked by his distinctive style. (Play "Down By The Water" and R.E.M.'s "The One I Love" side by side).
Query calls "The King Is Dead" "a collection of more Americana-inspired songs." To flesh out the Americana feel, the band brought in another high-profile collaborator, vocalist Gillian Welch, to play Emmylou Harris to Meloy's Gram Parsons. On tour, Sara Watkins from Nickel Creek re-creates Welch's harmonies, and plays fiddle and guitar to boot.
The first leg of this year's tour ended with a sold-out May 2 show in Atlanta. The next day, the Decemberists shocked their fans with a statement saying that "since-the-very-beginning accordion and keyboard player and all-around rad person" Conlee had been diagnosed with breast cancer.
In an open letter, Conlee wrote:
"The band and crew are like family to me and have been incredibly supportive and understanding. To be making music with everyone and seeing the fans has helped me to feel more positive and keep my mind off of my diagnosis. ...
"There are still a few unknowns out there concerning my cancer, but I am thinking positive and hope to be back on the road soon. Thanks for all of your support! See you soon!"
Fans saw Conlee sooner than expected. After undergoing surgery, she performed at two late May shows on the West Coast. However, the band's publicist says ongoing treatments will force Conlee to miss the Decemberists' remaining concerts this summer.
While Conlee is taking a break for medical reasons, the rest of the band will be on hiatus soon as well.
Query, who shares a side project called Black Prairie with Conlee and Funk, points out, "Everybody sort of has other things going on. And it just feels like for a little while, it'll be nice to not have the Decemberists be the main thing we think about and we'll let those other things come into the forefront."
After 10 years in the band, Meloy says he, too, is looking forward to doing other things. He's been working on a series of young adult novels with illustrations by his wife Carson Ellis, who has created art for the Decemberists' album covers.
Meloy, a self-described "homebody," also will have more time with his family, including his 5-year-old autistic son, Hank, who is the subject of the "King Is Dead" track "Rise to Me." Meloy says the song is like a three-way conversation between Hank, Ellis and him about how to deal with Hank's situation.
"Hank, who has the biggest challenge of us all, is trying to figure out how to live in a world of neuro-typical people. And he's got like a really tough road ahead of him and I think it was just a kind of a letter to him about that and standing your ground and being strong," he says.
"Invariably there is a gulf, kind of this disconnect, and you try to figure out other ways around it," Meloy continues. "Every day it's like a new challenge and a new lesson learned, and a new epiphany."
"Epiphany" is the kind of melodic word that fans have come to expect from Meloy, who, after much pondering, says with questionable sincerity that his favorite word is "frond." The erudite lyricist keeps his vocabulary sharp by reading, but says he doesn't do crossword puzzles, and he plays Scrabble only intermittently.
"I'll play Scrabble a lot when I'm winning, you know, on Facebook," he says. "And then as soon as I get on a losing streak, I'll quit it and swear I'll never go back."
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