Death Cab For Cutie
14th March 2019
The Civic Theatre, Auckland, New Zealand.
Review by Sarah Kidd. Photography by Doug Peters.
This year’s Auckland Arts Festival has already offered up some sumptuous evenings of entertainment, many attendees still wrapped within the memories of the enthralling performance by Beach House at the Auckland Town Hall just a few days ago. Those who witnessed Death Cab for Cutie at the decadent Civic Theatre last night will no doubt be feeling the same way as they slip into the weekend; the Seattle quintet delivering a show that their New Zealand fans will not soon forget.
As the Civics’ beloved artificial sky full of stars slowly crept under the cover of darkness, the stage came to life as Death Cab for Cutie opened with a double header of ‘I Dreamt we Spoke Again’ and ‘Summer Years’ from their latest album Thank You for Today. Vocalist Ben Gibbard soon encourages the fans to leave their seats and join him down the front, a singular creature made of dozens of human arms, legs and celebratory nodding heads swiftly snaking its way down the sleek red velvet isles to line the edge of the stage.
Just as ‘Summer Years’ is Gibbard looking back at his vanished youth, collectively the band gently turns the fans heads to look back into their stronghold of work, ‘The Ghosts of Beverley Drive’ from the Kintsugi album quickly tailed by ‘Long Division’ from 2008’s Narrow Stairs; each song like a turning of the page in an album of memories, the act of which brings the audience full circle once again to the present day with ‘Gold Rush’.
While Death Cab for Cuties latest album may not quite provoke the hedonistic highs of some of their earlier works, live the songs translate beautifully, the scattering of them throughout the set often leading nicely into more cherished tracks such as ‘Crooked Teeth’, it’s indie rock-soaked notes providing the fans with an inner exuberance that played out across their lips. Their joy was obviously contagious as they swayed their bodies and waved their arms in the air like wheat caught in a summer breeze, guitarist Dave Depper even dropping to the ground and rolling around momentarily during ‘No Sunlight’.
Discarding his guitar to station himself behind the keyboards, Gibbard performed an emotional version of ‘What Sarah Said’, the cascading notes like rain against a winter window pane, while the poignant ’60 & Punk’ was a poetically written letter to one of Gibbards’ idols who had left the metallic taste of disappointment on his tongue due to his issues with alcoholism.
The five-piece continued to sonically move together as one, Gibbard rarely still as he rocked on his heels, drummer Jason McGeer providing the backbone to his rhythm. With stage lighting that was quite simply world class level, the very parameters of Death Cab for Cutie’s playing space appeared to continuously re-contour itself, the music shapeshifting as it played hide and seek with the rays of light, the combination of the two laying down the foundations upon which the perspicuous words to songs such as ‘I Will Possess your Heart’ pleaded their case.
Introducing ‘Black Sun’ – Gibbard wistfully declaring it to be the catchiest song he ever wrote during the worst year of his life – a wonderfully distorted guitar solo sliced through the middle of the track providing a small insight into Gibbards spiritual state at the time. Those darker moments soon replaced with the soaring sentiments of ‘We Looked Like Giants’, the harmonies between Gibbard and Depper reminiscent of early Placebo and the falsettos of Brian Molko, the song itself languidly stretching out in the middle as it basked in the magentas spilling over like waterfalls from the ceiling above.
Despite staring down the barrel of the two-hour mark the fans cried out for more, the band making them wait for a few extra agonising moments before Gibbard appeared as a solitary figure before them, his acoustic version of ‘I Will Follow You into the Dark’ seeing the entire venue fall into a reverent silence allowing Gibbards words to fill the void around them. Performing one final trio of songs, Death Cab for Cutie completed the evening with two from their 2003 breakthrough album Transatlanticism, the title track seeing the stage itself oscillate within a climax of light, shadow and sound.
Absolute perfection.
Were you there at The Civic Theatre for this beautiful indie rock gig? Or have you seen Death Cab For Cutie perform live somewhere else? Tell us about it in the comments below!
Setlist:
- I Dreamt We Spoke Again
- Summer Years
- The Ghosts Of Beverly Drive
- Long Division
- Title And Registration
- Gold Rush
- Crooked Teeth
- Pictures
- No Sunlight
- What Sarah Said
- 60 & Punk
- I Will Possess Your Heart
- Title Track
- Autumn Love
- Black Sun
- Expo 86
- Northern Lights
- Cath…
- We Looked Like Giants
- Soul Meets Body
- I Will Follow You Into The Dark (acoustic) [encore]
- When We drive [encore]
- Tiny Vessels [encore]
- Transatlanticism [encore]
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