LIVE REVIEW: Death Cab for Cutie
16th July @ Manchester Apollo
Seattle’s Death Cab for Cutie might just be four scruffy lads with a bit of dodgy facial hair, but they somehow exude a vibe of sheer Americana cool. Their first few songs alone name-check more US cities than a Jack Kerouac novel. So when singer Ben Gibbard announces “Oh Manchester, how we’ve missed you” shortly into the set, it’s difficult to know how much he really means it.
False humility or not, at first it seems Manchester really has missed them. The reception given to tracks like New Year can’t indicate anything else. Whereas on record it’s twee-and-whimsical college indie, in the live setting it becomes quite a powerful rock beast. But soon enough, such crowd-pleasing singalongs give way to dirgeful slow-burners and too many of the dreaded “here’s one from our new album”.
So while the front row obsessives mouth along to every word regardless, and the indier-than-thou hipsters murmur about how different it is from the band’s first album tour in 1998, the fair-weather fans are the real barometer of how entertaining this is. They may have only discovered Death Cab when the group soundtracked a repeat episode of The OC last week. But they know the truth: tonight is mostly boring, with the odd flash of melodic brilliance. And don’t let anyone – Death Cab diehard or muso snob – tell you otherwise.
You have hit the nail on the head. The band may not like it but the appeal of this Seattle crew’s recorded sound to date is their well crafted but cutesy, easy listening indie-ballads. Ben Gibbard has bags of charisma but the guy wants to be a rock star. The accomplished, but relentless, bass and drums onslaught and full on stadium-type volume meant that the lyrics and the overall charm of the band disappeared in the wall of sound.
paul bassett
July 17, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Hi! It’s The Lemur over @ The Lemur Blog http://thelemurblog.blogspot.com/
Sunday July 27 is my birthday and I’m reaching out with this mass-created message to all 100-something blogs in my blogroll asking them to send me a nice birthday track! I would like a track to thelemurblog@hotmail.com by Sunday, when I will be posting all tracks in a nice mix – of course linking to the blogs by their respective tracks! Thanks in advance!
Yours sincerely, The Lemur
The Lemur
July 25, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Sorry missed your birthday mix Lemur, hope it was a good one!
Glad you agree Paul. I actually liked some of the rockier edge that the live performance gave the songs though, just thought the more mellow songs lost their cutesy charm away from their studio magic.
Jonathan Deamer
July 28, 2008 at 12:55 am