Death Cab for Cutie was quite good, I thought. Ben Gibbard, the lead singer, was much more, well, kinetic than I thought: on disc, he sounds like this fragile, sensitive soul who writes sad, gorgeous songs, but on stage, he’s a wild man, forever doing that shoulder-jerk dance geeky high school boys do when they’re rockin’ it on the dance floor. They didn’t play one of my favorites, the ultimate breakup song For What Reason, but they hit on just about all the other highlights of their back catalog. And the stuff from the new album sounded great live.

Plus, unlike certain bands I could mention, they took the responsibility of a Sunday night show seriously and were done by 12:30. They also dispensed with the most irritating rock and roll ritual, the lengthy wait for the encore. Twenty seconds of crowd yelping, and they were back out on stage to recreate the odd Bjork cover that comes on the bonus disc of the new CD. I like my bands user-friendly.

Leia and Matt, who came with, were quite tired after a long day of hamster declawing, and unfortunately they had to leave a bit early. Hope they liked ‘em. If you missed the show, here’s a good downloadable Death Cab concert from April 2000. (Matt, I assume you’ve already found this page, but if you haven’t, go hog wild — lots of stuff you’d like. And here’s some more DCFC MP3s. Hey, that kinda rhymes.)

12 November 2001

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