Ask Decemberists bassist Nate Query about the highlight of his career and he’s bound to give two different answers. In December 2006, band member Chris Funk took on comedian Stephen Colbert in a guitar challenge, which made national news. “Stephen Colbert did a green screen challenge where he released green screen footage of himself with a light saber,” Query explained in an interview with LiveDaily. “Then he had people turn it into whatever they wanted and send it into him.

“Not long after that, we did a green screen challenge with an animated video that we made. We released green screen footage and let people animate it however they wanted. So he called us out on his show saying, ‘The indie rock band The Decemberists [ tickets ] are trailing my coattails.’ Then we told him, ‘Well, we did the light saber thing first. So therefore, we challenge you to a guitar duel.’” “The Colbert Report” host accepted the challenge.

Query said The Decemberists were just excited to be mentioned on his television show. “He actually had Chris on his show, which was amazing. It was so fun to watch. I was living in San Francisco at the time so I couldn’t watch it with the rest of the band. Everybody else got together with a bunch of friends to watch it. I had friends over my house to watch it. I was watching it on TV, but it was still the highlight of the career.

It was amazing.” Asked what what it was like to perform with Mavis Staples at Bonnaroo, Query had a similar reaction. “That was the next highlight of my career,” he said with a laugh. “That was unbelievable. She’s so amazing. It’s funny. In the pop-rock world, there’s so little opportunity to interact with musicians of other generations. You’re always with people of the same age and same experience.