As the crowd stretched up past the car park just before the gig began, I saw many eager faces waiting, it was only 7.30 and Death Cab For Cutie weren’t set to start until 9. At that point I remembered back to the last time Death Cab played Rock City and how they were supported by Frightened Rabbit, who after that show, immediately became one of my favourite bands.
So when the support band ‘The Head and The Heart’ came on stage I was of course amongst all the eager faces and it is safe to say, they did not disappoint!
The 6 piece indie folk-pop group were upbeat and had my foot tapping straight away. With a host of percussion instruments, a violin, bass, two acoustic guitars, drums and some fantastic voices they were certainly a worthy warm up for Death Cab. They reminded me in a way of Cassadaga era bright Eyes. They announce that they are from Seattle, Washington and made no mention of their eponymous self titled album currently out on Sub Pop records, so I will for them on here. Buy it here
Death Cab arrive on stage on time to an enormous cheer, the main hall is packed full now, those stragglers who missed the support band really did miss out. They open with an old song ‘Bend to Squares’ from the Something About Airplanes album. They have a two hour set and it seems they are going to spread all the material from the new album out and keep eveyone entertained by playing loads of old fan favourites.
Fantastic news.
Sometime later after singing my heart out to songs like ‘what sarah said’ (and my personal favourite from Narrow Stairs ‘grapevine fires’) the band leave the stage and Ben Gibbard talks to the crowd a little, I remember thinking he is interacting with the crowd more than usual today, he must be enjoying himself. He breaks into ‘I will follow you into the dark’ to an eruption of applause and everybody starts to sing along. I look around and see hundreds of mobile phones pointed towards the stage recording him sing the fan favourite.
The band walk back on stage and the bass line kicks in, we get the full 8 minute version of ‘I will possess your heart’ with the rising and crashing and building of the awesome 4 minute introduction until the lyrics kick in “How I wish you could see the potential, the potential of you and me, it’s like a book elegantly bound, but in a language you can’t read”.
A few songs later they play ‘meet me on the equinox’ from the Twilight soundtrack, perhaps I am biased as I do not like the films, but when this song was released I thought it to be a disappointment. However, after seeing it played live, I now think it is truely amazing.
They play some more fan favourites ‘title and registration’ ‘soul meets body’ and new song ‘stay young, go dancing’ fits perfectly in with them. ‘Cath…’ gets dedicated to everyone in the room and everybody at Rock City, Ben tells us that they love playing here and assures us he is “not just saying that” and you know what? I’m inclined to believe him.
They end on ‘Sound of Settling’ and the crowd cheer and chant until they return for the encore. They nail ‘title track’ (the second oldest song they played after the opener ‘bend to squares’) then continue with a personal favourite of mine ‘expo 86’ and finally end with ‘transatlanticism’.
Beautiful.
SETLIST:
Bend to Squares
(Something About Airplanes)
The New Year
(Transatlanticism)
We Laugh Indoors
(The Photo album)
Crooked Teeth
(Plans)
Photobooth
(we have the facts and we are voting yes)
Doors Unlocked and Open
(Codes & Keys)
Long Division
(Narrow Stairs)
Grapevine Fires
(Narrow Stairs)
Codes and Keys
(Codes & Keys)
What Sarah Said (Plans)
I Will Follow You Into the Dark (Plans)
I Will Possess Your Heart (Narrow Stairs)
You Are a Tourist
(Codes & Keys)
Underneath the Sycamore
(Codes & Keys)
Meet Me on the Equinox
(Twilight: New Moon OST)
Title and Registration (Transatlanticism)
A Movie Script Ending (The Photo Album)
Soul Meets Body
(Plans)
Stay Young, Go Dancing (Codes & Keys)
Cath…
(Narrow Stairs)
The Sound of Settling (Transatlanticism)
ENCORE:
Portable Television (Codes & Keys)
Title Track (we have the facts and we are voting yes)
Expo ’86 (Transatlanticism)
Transatlanticism (Transatlanticism)
leave your thoughts on the gig by commenting below….
