Leaving a Neutral Taste in my Mouth

I went to see Death Cab for Cutie in KC on Friday night. The trip was great overall because I got to hang out with my old friends Justin and Stuart. The concert itself left something to be desired, however.

First of all, I should lay down a disclaimer for the fact that this concert had a total of five bands, and we purposefully went late in order to not have to listen to four of them. Those that went with at least a partial intention of seeing Against Me, Alkaline Trio, The Psychedelic Furs, or Hot Hot Heat may have come away with a very different impression than I. (They also have worse taste in music.) But we went with the sole intention of seeing Death Cab, and we were disappointed.

You see, Death Cab played for approximately 70 minutes. I haven’t been to a great number of concerts in my time, but from what I understand that is shorter than a standard set. I can understand if there are a lot of bands playing that some compression might be in order, but the headlining act should be longer than the openers! Death Cab’s four openers took a combined four hours. You can do the math and see what’s wrong here.

Truncated stage time aside, Death Cab’s performance was quite solid. Solid in the fact that they sounded just like they do on the albums, which is a feat of musicianship I know many bands cannot claim. As impressive as that is, it unfortunately means they lacked the sort of energy, the showmanship that really makes for a good show. Only in their encore of “Transatlanticism” did their stage presence really shine.

For the price of the concert, I could have bought a couple Death Cab CDs and listened to the same damn thing in the comfort of my own home, where there are no emos or hipsters holding up their cell phones (no doubt filled with the numbers of other whiny white suburbanite kids) in place of lighters, in response to said Death Cab songs. But then I wouldn’t have had an adventure in going to an auditorium in the wrong state. Twice. So thanks for the good time, Stu and Justin.