just TWO DAYS till the melbourne gig.

Tonight is the night in Brisbane town. Expect a full review tomorrow.

My review of the Brisbane gig.

‘I Wish the World Was Flat Like The Old Days’

Death Cab For Cutie

The Tivoli Brisbane 22/08/08

It’s difficult to recognise where my feelings stand on Death Cab for Cutie’s latest trip to Brisbane this past Friday 22/08/08. I saw them in July of 2006 twice in three days, at their Brisbane gig at the Arena and their 45 minute set at Splendour in the Grass, both of which rank near the top echelon as far as memorable music gigs are concerned. At this time they were on the precipice of musical superstardom for various reasons that every crappy music publication cites in their standard profile of the band. Now they have well and truly become synonymous as the ‘indie band on a major label’ band. I believe that they’re now at the point where U2 was between ‘The Unforgettable Fire’ and ‘The Joshua Tree’ some 25 years ago. That being their audience is increasing and in turn they’ve become a mainstream success story where the ‘underground band has made good’. However with such ubiquitous notoriety, the essence of what made them an excellent band to hard core fans in the first place seems lost in translation. (Lets just hope lead singer and chief songwriter Ben Gibbard and guitarist/producer Christopher Walla don’t churn out crap like ‘Beautiful Day’ in an attempt to keep the band together in ten years time).

That’s not to say the gig was bad, far from it. They still have the magic to put on a transcendent live performance as all songs were performed with aplomb and fervor, combined with a more energetic and explosive performance than many of their recorded efforts demonstrate. The band does seem tighter musically than when I saw them 25 months ago. This was particularly the case on recent efforts ‘Long Division’ and ‘I Will Possess Your Heart’ as well as DCFC staples like ‘Movie Script Ending’ and standard set closer ‘Transatlanticism', which will always remain the highlight of the show, particularly for first time concert goers.

However, this is where the problem lies for me. To me this concert whilst excellent was ‘Lowest Common Denominator Death Cab’. The set list was heavily weighted to their latest offering ‘Narrow Stairs’, while the rest of the set list played out like a Greatest Hits Tour

Set list below based on my approximation of order

Bixby Canyon Bridge
The New Year
Why You'd Want to Live Here
Crooked Teeth
Long Division
Grapevine Fires
A Movie Script Ending
Company Calls
Title Track
Soul Meets Body
I Will Follow You Into the Dark
I Will Possess Your Heart
Cath
No Sunlight
The Sound of Settling
Marching Bands of Manhattan……

Title and Registration
405
Your Heart is An Empty Room
Transatlanticism

You can’t really blame them I suppose, as when they played the title track of their second album ‘We Have The Facts and We’re Voting Yes’ I overheard your typical Death Cab post 2004 late comer say "is this off an EP I don't have?" (In which case one would assume he only had purchased the band albums after the band had been placed within the confines of popular culture over the past four years). Similar theatrics were on display when the crowd conducted sing alongs to well known favourites ‘Soul Meets Body’ ‘I Will Follow You Into the Dark’ and ‘Crooked Teeth’ but hardly anyone recognised ‘Your Bruise’ off of their debut album, despite a better performance from the band on that song combining with Gibbard’s more obtuse songwriting. The band are torn I believe. Why bother conducting a ten minute drum duel on ‘We Looked Like Giants’ or playing an undiscovered gem like ‘The Line of Best Fit’ when a great deal of the audience consists of people who have a greater knowledge ‘The Sound of Settling’ instead of the buried treasures that the majority of bands catalogue are comprised of?

Besides the fact that I couldn’t see anything because the venue was so poor, the crowd was mainly comprised of the aforementioned douchebags and the band barely did anything I hadn’t heard before, they still put on a good show. Lets hope when they return to Australia in a few months time their live efforts demonstrate more imagination and reward fans who were with them long before Seth Cohen was imagined.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Toddstar,

quote:

Originally posted by Toddstar:
Why bother conducting a ten minute drum duel on ‘We Looked Like Giants’ or playing an undiscovered gem like ‘The Line of Best Fit’ when a great deal of the audience consists of people who have a greater knowledge ‘The Sound of Settling’ instead of the buried treasures that the majority of bands catalogue are comprised of?

That's it, next time they come here, whenever they play anything "obscure" (i.e. not a single off plans / narrow stairs or something played on The OC) I'm gonna go "WOOOO!!! YEAH!!!! TITLE TRACK!!!! WOO!!!" just to let them know that people do appreciate those songs.

I did that twice and for Your Bruise as well. I think they heard me because the silence was almost deafening throughout those songs.

i pretty much agree. i loved the show, i mean it was a death cab for cutie show, come on .. and they were tight musically and i would say sounded better than they did in 2006, but they just looked like they were doing the motions and didn't really care.

the crowd annoyed me a little, even right up the front they were rapturous for anything off narrow stairs/plans but talked through the rest of it .. personally, i could've done with less narrow stairs and more trans/plans/photo album/facts, but i guess as a band's catalogue grows, it's inevitable that you won't hear as many older songs as you once did. i was wayyy too excited when they played 405, and was met with weird looks from those around me. fantastic.

it was an awesome show and i loved every second of it, i just wish the guys would have a little more crowd interaction and switch up the setlist a little. and also, the 'we'll hold each other soon in the blackest of rooms' would have to be THE most off-key audience singalong i have ever heard in my entire life. i'm not going to lie, i thought it was pretty funny.

photobooth; 0/3 shows

Im from newcastle and fell quite ill the weekend of their Sydney show. I couldnt make it down and had to give my ticket away!!!

I have never hated myself for anything before but i had to give it away cause i could have had to go to hospital!

I just need somebody to give me assurance that they will return for their next album and play in sydeny/newcastle/NSW somewhere!!

DCFC are my favourite band of all time. No other band can compare. Can anybody tell me how the Sydney show went?? What was the set-list. I heard from someone that they played alot from Photo album and older. Like 405 and Photobooth!?? Is this true.

I cant stand that fact that people who have only tapped into DCFC since Narrow Stairs saw them in flesh, when i couldnt, a fan of many years.

cheers. mj

It was also mentioned that the Enmore crowd was dead silent when they did 405 and Movie script ending!!! ARRGHH!!! I would have sung it sooo loud just to compensate for the other thousand no-brain "blow-ins". Sorry..i gotta take a break

quote:

Lets hope when they return to Australia in a few months time their live efforts demonstrate more imagination and reward fans who were with them long before Seth Cohen was imagined.

Exqueezme?? Is this just a random statement or is their talk of them returning soon. Like in a year or two??

At the Brisbane gig in the banter before Follow Ben Said 'We're sad this is our last gig in Australia (Crowd 'awww'). Don't get too upset we'll be back... in a couple of months.' This is an exact quote.

So they're certainly coming back, but we'll just have to speculate as to what this involves until an official announcement is made. I am guessing summer festivals, (Falls, Byron etc or BDO). Either way they'll be back within 3 to 6 months.

Aw, that's terrible, mj17. You have my sympathies. I hope you catch them on their next time around, whenever that is.

^ i meant as in 0/3 death cab shows i've attended.

and todd .. i thought he was kidding when he said that? because he said something like "this is the last australian show we'll do in a while", and the crowd was like "aww .." and then he was like "oh, i mean for a few months .." and i was under the impression that he was just joking around.

No I thought he was dead serious, but I could have misread the situation, although people I have talked to who were at the gig felt the same way.

if you were gonna joke about that, wouldn't you pick an extreme like one week or 5 years?

Oh, but don't complain about the lesser-known songs being lesser-known.
The magic of songs like that live, is that when you are there and you're the only one within earshot that knows the words and notes, it's as if they are playing only for you.

Let's hope they do return to Australia soon and GO GO GO with 4:00pm under 18 Melbourne shows. I might as well just wait until I do turn eighteen at this rate.