REVIEW: Death Cab for Cutie @ Wang Theatre 10/14
By Alison Audet
If you’re looking for nostalgia from Death Cab for Cutie, you’re not going to get it anytime soon. Their newest album, August’s Thank You for Today, debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top Rock and Alternative charts. The band modernized without losing what makes them so special: endearing, heartfelt lyrics and complex instrumentation. It’s no wonder they spent two nights performing in Boston: they keep getting better and better.
Opening the show was Charly Bliss. Lead singer Eva Hendricks’s piercing vocals and the band’s energetic riffs made their set engaging and exciting to start the show. Self-described as “a bubble-grunge band from Brooklyn, NY,” they complimented Death Cab while bringing their own unique sound to the table. They played selections from their 2017 album Guppy, as well as their new single “Heaven.”
It was obvious, even before the Death Cab stepped foot on stage that Thank You for Today would be the focal point of the show. The backdrop, a wavering digital image, bore the same shade of sky blue as the album cover with the text “Thank You for –“ hovering on top. A whopping seven songs from the album made it onto the setlist, including “Northern Lights,” “60 & Punk,” and lead single “Gold Rush.”
This isn’t to say they took a complete departure from their previous material. They played a variety of songs from 2003’s Transatlanticism and 2005’s Plans, including my personal favorite “The Sound of Settling.” They did an incredible job of packing the best of each record into the night, showcasing the nuance and feeling of each record seamlessly. In fact, the only albums from the band’s nine LP catalog that were not included in the setlist were 1998’s Something About Airplanes and 2001’s The Photo Album. From my perspective, there were only two songs I truly missed: Transatlanticism’s “The New Year” and Thank You for Today’s “Autumn Love.
Something remarkable about the performance, aside from the wide variety of material, was just how talented each member of Death Cab for Cutie really is. For a band whose debut album is now 20 years old, every song sounded as good as it does on the record, if not better. Lead singer Ben Gibbard, whose voice is unmistakable in recording, sounds just as good live, as do his piano and guitar skills. With songs like “I Will Possess Your Heart” and “Transatlanticism” —which each individually span over seven minutes and rely heavily on instrumentation without vocals—are unwavering live. The skill, discipline, and sheer talent shown by every member of the band is a testament to just how good Death Cab really is.
By far the most striking feature of the show was the encore. On the longer side in terms of encores, it featured four songs: “I Will Follow You Into the Dark,” “When We Drive,” “Tiny Vessels,” and “Transatlanticism.” Gibbard went solo for “Dark,” giving fans a sing-along of the beloved classic. But the real focus here was “Transatlanticism,” an epic dedication to a lover across the ocean. Death Cab gave it all the love it deserved, and clocking in at just under eight minutes long, they didn’t just do it justice, they made it magnificent. The final refrain rang out into the echoing theatre and rattled the moldings. Powerful and jarringly beautiful, it was absolutely the highlight of the night.