The Upstate Life

Monday, October 24, 2005

TUL's Take: Death Cab For Cutie @ 9:30 Club

Last night's show at the 9:30 Club proved to be a more enjoyable affair compared to the concert we last attended. The Sharpie-inked X's marked on both hands were highly abundant Sunday evening as OC fans galore got to see perhaps their first indie rock concert live in person. However, our group felt we fucked up the age curve compared to everyone else around us. Although there were no BCC sweatshirts to be spotted this time around, we did overhear one girl saying that she hopes the show would be over before midnight since she only had her learner's permit.

I felt the best part of last night definitely had to be the opener, the Montreal band Stars. There has to be something in the water up there in the north country since I've yet to find a Canadian band from the Quebec province that fails to deliver such captivating live performances. These guys tremendously delivered during their opening set and felt they could easily headline their own show here in the near future. Their sound is like a composite of Rilo Kiley meets The Arcade Fire meets Zero 7. They encompassed the stage presence, enthusiasm, and musical talent to pull off a seamless opening act which will go down in the books as one of the best openers I've seen this year. How they failed to not appear under TUL's pretentious radar is beyond me.

Seattle's Death Cab took the stage around 9:45pm to a huge round of applause and started the show predictably off with the Plans opener, "Marching Bands Of Manhattan." As already praised in the 9:30 Forum, whoever EQ'ed the boards last night did a hell of a job as this was one of the best sounding concerts I've ever heard at the 9:30 Club. The material, as expected, was mostly comprised from their newest release, but I have to admit I was a bit bummed that they only performed a mere one song from their first LP, something about airplanes. When the band played "Amputations", judging by a quick look at the mostly young audience, it appeared that only a handful of fans actually knew this standout track. Don't worry kids, Ben would eventually get to "The Sound of Settling." It was also somewhat disappointing we didn't get to hear "Fake Frowns", one of my favorites off their debut, but I was dubious from the start that one would be culled from the DCFC archive. Overall, it was a great set albeit pretty forgettable for me. Stars, on the other hand, appeared to shine brighter that night. Setlist via the DCFC boards:

Marching Bands of Manhattan
Why You'd Want to Live Here
The New Year
Title and Registration
Soul Meets Body
Summer Skin
For What Reason
Company Calls
Crooked Teeth
Different Names
Amputations
Movie Script
What Sarah Said
Brothers on a Hotel Bed
Expo '86
The Sound of Settling

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I Will Follow You Into the Dark
Tiny Vessels
Photobooth
Transatlanticism

Posted by Brett at 3:21 PM |