Death Cab For Cutie w/Franz Ferdinand & Cribs
Ricoh Centre
04.18.04

What a great pre-birthday present to myself - seeing Death Cab live in concert again! This time the venue was at the Ricoh Hockey Centre at the CNE. It was a "less an optiminal" venue because of the horrid acoustics and disconnected concert layout.

The promoters originally called the show at the docks, but after selling out in a matter of minutes they moved it to this larger venue a few weeks later (hmm.. $$ callling?).

A northern England band called "Cribs" opened up the evening, followed by Scottish boys, Franz Ferdinand. FF are great entertainers. Their driving drums, explosively catchy rhythm guitar and heart-pounding bass amassed a tidal wave for Alexander Kapranos' vocals to ride ontop. "Take me out" finally awoke the pit and got the juices flowing.

Unfortunately at peak levels, the aggressive indie-rock sound bounced off all parts of the hockey area, resulting in a wall of chaotic sound resembling that of an Usher aircraft landing to thousands of screaming 16-year old girls named Tamara.

Given Death Cab's more melodic tones in comparison to FF, I hoped it wouldn't be as bad. And luckily it wasn't!

They started the set by blending 2 piano tunes "Passenger Seat" and "Different Names for the Same Thing" seamlessly. The rest of their set blended together as beautifully as the introduction. DC played tunes mostly from their last 2 albums, except for "Airplane" from their first album and "Photobooth" from the album previous to their mainstream breakout album, "Transatlantacism". Near the end of the set they did this a v. cool instrumental number that was full of texture, dynamics and dramatic progression. Closing my eyes I let it ride through me - I was in the palm of their hands. THIS is why I go to concerts!

Before I knew it, Ben was thanking the crowd for coming out. I honestly thought "wow, a short set" when I realized they'd been playing for 2 hours! Their encore was packed with 3 huge numbers, ending with Transatlantacism; probably their biggest song to date.

Overally the show surpassed expectations - If this was at a real concert venue (i.e. made for MUSIC, not ice hockey) it would have surpassed the previous DC show I went to. They're getting much more comfortable on stage, and tighter. Ben was less (but still) fidgety with his mic and earpiece, and the other band members even spoke to the crowd. There was even a false alarm bell (piercingly out of tune, btw) that they played quite well through as well. The management told them "This is a false alarm. We don't know how to turn it off - we have to wait until the firemen come". Brutal.

One last word: For all your music geeks who put their nose up at DC, I point my nose right back at your snobby jaded faces! If you don't like their music, fine, but don't tell me they're a sell out and how they "used to be" so good. These guys have been making music since 1998, and so far it appears to me that they're keeping true to their sound. Success was inevitable. I'm still shocked at their success only b/c the vocals are not of the "pop idol" model, and some of their music does stray away from typical pop melodies and verse/chorus templates.

Take care,

RE

"...'Cause there's no comfort in the waiting room
Just nervous pacers bracing for bad news
And then the nurse comes round and everyone will lift their heads
But I'm thinking of what Sarah said
that "Love is watching someone die"

So who's going to watch you die?" -DCFC