Death Cab for Cutie

Where: The Paramount, Seattle, WA
When: November 19, 2005
Who: Death Cab for Cutie with Stars

Seth Cohen’s favorite band has finally made it. Even in its hometown, it took Death Cab four years to make the natural progression from small club (the Crocodile) to big theater (the Paramount). But with the groundbreaking Transatlanticism, and this year’s major-label debut, Plans, DCFC has gained star status, and deservedly so.

The last time I saw Death Cab was at the Showbox on the Transatlanticism tour. They played all my favorite songs, including closing the show with the the transcendant title track from that album. I guess I picked the wrong night in this two night stand at the Paramount, because I missed that one as well as my other favorite (We Laugh Indoors). Despite that, I was quite impressed.

I had seen a few of these songs performed during the band’s “secret” Bumbershoot show a few months earlier, but I had heard that most of the songs had matured considerably in the intervening months. “Marching Bands of Manhattan” opened the show with a much stronger presence than it has on Plans, and from there Ben & Co. marched into a four-song mini set of some of their biggest “hits” including the second-best song off their previous effort (the winsome “Title and Registration”).

Mixing new material seamlessly with old (and older) songs, the band has clearly found a new comfort level in their live performance. Ben Gibbard and Chris Walla showed their talents for multiple instruments, each taking turns on guitar and keys, while Ben even through in some drum work on a few songs. Of the new stuff, Different Names for the Same Thing and What Sarah Said were particularly effecting, though the most emotional moment of the night surely came in the form of “I Will Follow You Into the Dark.” I would call it a Ben solo, but that would be a disservice to the backing vocals provided by the sellout crowd. The fact that the band can leave this song to just Ben, his guitar and the audience says something about their respect for the music.

The show closed with a tour rarity, the excellent “Blacking Out the Friction” and then “Prove My Hypothesis,” after which the band members indulged their inner rock stars by destroying their instruments. It was a fitting end to a great show and a great tour.

Setlist:
Marching Bands of Manhattan
Why You’d Want to Live Here
The New Year
Title and Registration
Soul Meets Body
Photobooth
Company Calls
Crooked Teeth
Different Names for the Same Thing
Amputations
A Movie Script Ending
What Sarah Said
Brothers On a Hotel Bed
Pictures In an Exhibition
We Looked Like Giants
Sound of Settling
Encore:
I Will Follow You Into the Dark (Ben solo)
Blacking Out the Friction —>
Your Ex-Lover Is Dead (Stars cover)
Prove My Hypotheses

photo by William Anthony. For more great photographs of this show, visit the Death Cab boards.