Death Cab For Cutie, Say Hi @ 170 Russell, Melbourne (27/07/2015)
It was a Monday night, and following the release of their latest record Kintsugi Death Cab For Cutie were playing at 170 Russel, which to quote frontman Ben Gibbard “looks like it’s a bar from the movie Tron”.
The support act for the night was Eric Elbogen, playing with his stage name Say Hi. Eric, walked on stage looking more like a dodgy accountant or I.T guy than somebody who was about to play for a room of hipster indie music fans. With a faux-tweed jacket and tie, suit pants and runners, alone with his MacBook and a microphone I was skeptical. He pressed play on the mac and started moving and shaking on stage. I initially thought “Is he just pressing play like Karaoke”, however I warmed up to him very quickly. His music is very quirky with songs about girls, vampires and spaceships just to name a few. |
He was very funny between songs, often chatting to the crowd and telling jokes. Despite not being able to play all the music live, it was very creatively written and he had a really great singing voice.
Death Cab came out to a sampled synth introduction, that was really hard to make out the words to and opened with the first track of Kintsugi, No Room in Frame. With it’s sugary melody, it’s one of the standout songs from the album, which has taken further steps away from their Translantacism sound. After guitarist and former producer of most of the songs Chris Walla left the band before Kintsugi, I was excited to see how their new album translated live.
They transitioned straight into Crooked Teeth, which instantly connected with the fans.
Ben then announced “We’re going to play an old song" then took us back to 2001 with Why’d You Want to Live Here from the photo album, a song he wrote about moving to Los Angeles with a girl and hating it.
Black Sun, another one of the good songs from Kintsugi and The New Year followed. The New Year was one of the highlights of the night for me—it highlights Death Cab’s old writing style perfectly. The lyrics paint a perfect picture of the story through metaphors and the music is bold and emotive. The song is written so well, that you can put yourself into the story. Whether it’s because of hitting the big time, or the fact that Ben became tired of people citing his songs as personal memoirs, the lyrics in the albums following became gradually more boring and lacklustre, and the overall sound took on a much poppier feel. You’ve Haunted Me All My Life is a perfect example, with the lyrics and music being repetitive, boring, ambiguous and cliche.
On personal stories, Little Wanderer sounded like a glimpse into Ben’s relationship with ex-wife Zooey Deschanel, star of New Girl (perhaps I’m now one of these reviewers contributing to the reason why Ben drifted away from vivid storytelling?). When Ben was married to Zooey Deschanel, the songs took on a happier vibe compared to Kintsugi and their other albums.
Soul Meets Body and a long instrumental version of I Will Possess Your Heart took us to the encore. Although they put on a great show, apart from Ben and the drummer, the other members at times looked somewhat bored by the show, which was the second out of three. I also went to to the third show and the band was in a much better mood, with lots of jokes and a better set with songs such as Photo Booth, Title and Registration and The Sound of Settling.
The encore was great, and started with the crowd favourite I Will Follow You Into The Dark and followed by Binary Sea and Marching Bands of Manhattan. These songs flowed really in Transatlantacism, which is such an epic song to end with and was great to see live. All in all it was a great set from one of the world’s best alternative bands of the last decade.
Ryan Hyde
Death Cab came out to a sampled synth introduction, that was really hard to make out the words to and opened with the first track of Kintsugi, No Room in Frame. With it’s sugary melody, it’s one of the standout songs from the album, which has taken further steps away from their Translantacism sound. After guitarist and former producer of most of the songs Chris Walla left the band before Kintsugi, I was excited to see how their new album translated live.
They transitioned straight into Crooked Teeth, which instantly connected with the fans.
Ben then announced “We’re going to play an old song" then took us back to 2001 with Why’d You Want to Live Here from the photo album, a song he wrote about moving to Los Angeles with a girl and hating it.
Black Sun, another one of the good songs from Kintsugi and The New Year followed. The New Year was one of the highlights of the night for me—it highlights Death Cab’s old writing style perfectly. The lyrics paint a perfect picture of the story through metaphors and the music is bold and emotive. The song is written so well, that you can put yourself into the story. Whether it’s because of hitting the big time, or the fact that Ben became tired of people citing his songs as personal memoirs, the lyrics in the albums following became gradually more boring and lacklustre, and the overall sound took on a much poppier feel. You’ve Haunted Me All My Life is a perfect example, with the lyrics and music being repetitive, boring, ambiguous and cliche.
On personal stories, Little Wanderer sounded like a glimpse into Ben’s relationship with ex-wife Zooey Deschanel, star of New Girl (perhaps I’m now one of these reviewers contributing to the reason why Ben drifted away from vivid storytelling?). When Ben was married to Zooey Deschanel, the songs took on a happier vibe compared to Kintsugi and their other albums.
Soul Meets Body and a long instrumental version of I Will Possess Your Heart took us to the encore. Although they put on a great show, apart from Ben and the drummer, the other members at times looked somewhat bored by the show, which was the second out of three. I also went to to the third show and the band was in a much better mood, with lots of jokes and a better set with songs such as Photo Booth, Title and Registration and The Sound of Settling.
The encore was great, and started with the crowd favourite I Will Follow You Into The Dark and followed by Binary Sea and Marching Bands of Manhattan. These songs flowed really in Transatlantacism, which is such an epic song to end with and was great to see live. All in all it was a great set from one of the world’s best alternative bands of the last decade.
Ryan Hyde