Photo Credit: Stuart Sevastos.
Thursday evening saw Death Cab for Cutie play the final show of their Australian tour, their first since 2012, at Perth’s Metro City. An event that saw certain OC memes flood social media in the days and weeks running up to the gig.
Bit of a big disclosure right from the start! I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a Death Cab for Cutie fan. I’m familiar with certain songs, but I’ve not religiously followed their career. That being said. Thursday night’s gig is up there as one of the best gigs I’ve attended. That’s despite being held in Metro City, a venue that isn’t completely suited to hosting rock gigs.
What was it that made it such a great gig? Well the band and music notwithstanding; the audience helped. There was a distinct lack of douchebaggery from the audience (or at least where I was stood) there was none of that ceaseless chatter that I’ve come to witness at nearly gig I attend these days. There was no sense of hostility from anyone, no aggression and some pretty impressive mass sing-alongs! Unprovoked mass sing-alongs too!
Kicking off the evening was Say Hi, an indie “rock band” from Seattle Washington. I’m chucking that in inverted commas because, well, Say Hi is one man (Eric Elbogen) and a synthesiser/laptop. Now to be honest, I can’t say I was a huge fan of the musical output of Say Hi, though there were a few songs that I found agreeable. But for the most part, the songs just didn’t do much for me. Yet despite that, I found his set to be utterly enjoyable. Elbogen is a performer; he’s funny, in a dry and witty kind of way. He engages with the audience, even going so far as to have Q&A sessions and is quick (and cutting when needed) in his responses. One of my favourite moments of the night was him informing one poor hapless audience member that ‘he didn’t know why the upstairs was closed, he was the opening act, not the manager’. She was perhaps confused given his stage outfit, which was more used car salesman (in a good way) than rock star. I think I would sum up Say Hi’s set as surprising, but all in all good surprising.
After what seemed like the quickest turn around between sets, on came Death Cab – what followed was one of the most enjoyable and best performances from a band I’ve seen. The one thing that has really stuck with me from the gig is just how well paced it was. Like any gig, it had it’s ebbs and flows, its ups and downs tempo wise – but it just seemed to all happen at the right time. They slowed it down at the just the right time and ramped up the tempo as necessary. They were also relentless. I think other than maybe one or two songs (when he wasn’t on the piano) Gibbard did not stand still; and even as we got closer and closer to the two hour mark, there were no real signs that the band were about to wrap things up any time soon.
Unsurprisingly with new album Kintsugi released only a matter of months ago, a number of songs from that album did feature throughout the night; of that record’s eleven tracks, seven of them featured over the course of the set. But the majority of the 23-song set was made up of older material with nearly all of the band’s records represented. One of the main highlights was “I Will Follow You Into The Dark”, featuring just Gibbard on guitar and vocal. Right from the first words the crowd was with him, singing every word in what was just a beautiful moment. Other highlights for me included “Black Sun” and “Binary Sea”, both of which feature on the band’s latest record. To be honest, picking highlights from this performance is near impossible, such was the quality of the performance and testament to just how well-crafted the set list was.
Musically, everything seemed to working so well; the band was tight and really playing well off each other – with some great performances from Nick Harmer and Jason McGerr on bass and drums. I also found myself impressed by the guitar work of Dave Depper, a recent addition to the band. Gibbard’s vocals were impressive as well, just so consistent in terms of tone and delivery throughout. There was maybe a little wobble during “I Will Follow You Into The Dark”, where he couldn’t quite keep the high note going; but I’m not too sure he just wasn’t playing with the audience a little.
The band, as with any band at the top of their game, were really just a joy to watch. They demanded your attention. Gibbard was a charismatic frontman, and also a seemingly modest one, introducing the band as if they were still some relatively unknown entity. What was also clear was just how appreciative Gibbard and the band were to the audience – a mutual feeling I’m sure. Someone behind me commented that the set they were playing was identical to one played elsewhere in Australia; I’m not sure if he meant it as a grumble, but why mess with something that clearly works. So I mentioned at the beginning of this review that I didn’t consider myself a Death Cab for Cutie fan… that was before I saw them live. Now I can safely say I’ll be looking to get tickets next time I see they’re heading this way.
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