Death Cab For Cutie - concert review
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Ah, Death Cab For Cutie, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways...
This week I was lucky enough to see Ben Gibbard, Chris Walla, Jason McGerr, and Nicholas Harmer twice in one week - Saturday 6/21 at The Greek Theatre in Berkeley and Monday 6/23 at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles, and both concerts seemed to mirror their surroundings. Both were as different as they were alike. Berkeley's felt very "Bay Area" while the Nokia felt very "LA, if you know what I mean.
The arrival: Parking around UC Berkeley always manages to be a tortuous exercise in futility. It is an exercise dreamed up by the Devil as a way to punish humanity by having parking ticket dispensing machines that only accept nickels, dimes, quarters, $1 bills, and $5 bills. Normally that would be fine, but Berkeley is far from normal. The machine rejects most bills as "too wrinkly". Also, the prices range up to $15. Which means you either have to spend 45 minutes inputting $15 worth of dimes one at a time or spend 45 minutes begging the machine to just take the fucking dollar you motherfucking piece of fucking shit before you finally give up and print a ticket for 9pm knowing full well you'll be there until at least 11:30p. Parking at the Nokia? I have no idea. I read on their website parking would cost at least $25 and I opted for mass transit.
The wait: I was rather struck by the lack of band tees (something I first noticed at the Rilo Kiley show last week). When I saw DCFC in '06, I was one of several dozen people in DCFC shirts, with dozens more sporting other bands (generally connected to the band in some vague way). Now it was me and a few people who bought shirts at the venue. Everyone else was in überhipster attire (which currently seems to be skewing towards neon tights, Kanye sunglasses, and idiotic-looking faux-vintage hats). The Nokia was a stark contrast: here everyone was dressed like they either just stepped out of their Bentley or just out of their office on the 30th floor of the Wedbush Morgan building. At the bar people were actually wine tasting. Berkeley's audience was mostly late-teens and twentysomethings who live on Live105 and NPR. LA's was screaming 14-year olds and "cool" (as in "not") thirtysomethings who think KROQ is kick ass and OMG did you see that new Adam Sandler movie? That shizzle is off the hizzle!
The opener: Rogue...yawn...Wave. Sorry, I just can't think of them without being incredibly bored. I can't see what Death Cab sees in them. Yes, they're from Oakland (woo! OAKLAND!!! ) and are thus totally cool, but there's just nothing there for me. Their intrastate sets were identical - exactly, down to the very headbang. And in both sets, no one talked to the back-up guitarist. Like, no one. And he scowled both times. And all their songs sound like the same tired old pseudo-indie rock that pummels the airwaves every day. Yawn…
The main attraction: Each set was amazing, but you could tell they don't like being in LA all that much (and it was kinda funny to hear Los Angelenos boo during "Why You'd Want To Live Here" and get eerily quiet during "Grapevine Fires"). But the guys had a blast and so did we (as least up North). I was in the pit in Berkeley and it was great watching up close their sly winks and technical difficulties and just watching them love what they do and feeding on the mutual love from the audience. In LA they tried but the audience seemed put out. My neighbors spent much of the concert seated and chatting about hedge funds and the pros and cons of the new Coldplay album and whether or not Hyde was still worth going to (I was stuck up in the Mezz), while the sea of teenaged girls giggled and texted non-stop. Basically, Berkeley was like going to a concert, being at a concert, experiencing a concert, while LA felt like watching a show; I felt like a viewer rather than a participant, and if you can't participate then what's the point?
The show: Berkeley was a lot off Narrow Stairs (obviously), and equally divided between The Photo Album and Transatlaticism, with a sprinkling of Something About Airplanes, We Have The Facts And We're Voting Yes, Plans. in LA they kept the same basic template but shook up the order and added a few less often performed ditties including "Wait" from You Can Play These Songs With Chords. Up North the audience sang along to every song, even "Your Bruise" (from Airplanes, released in 1998). They were fans, real fans. Down South only a few knew anything pre Plans (except "The Sound Of Settling off Transatlaticism) and during "Wait" (Chords being their first album) many people sat down, several left the theater, most stopped dancing, and there couldn't have been more than five of us who know the words and sung along. Yet they exploded when any radio single was played. These weren't fans, these were passersbys who think they're cool. It was dispiriting to say the least. But the Berkeley version was fantastic enough to make its way as my third best concert ever.
Comments (11)
In case you're wondering my top 5 concerts of all time are:
Nice review!
Walla produced the new So Many Dynamos album, but I haven't had time to check it out.
Heard anything about it?
Sounds like one great show and one rather bizarre one... if any near me at a show started talking about hedge funds, they'd soon be finding out the advantages of life insurance ;)
this is LA, jox. you get used to hearing people talk about hedge funds. doesn't make it any less irritating though.
mcyamo, i've never heard of them.
Alex! I saw our boys just last night in Oregon. They were having a blast with lots of laughs and fun. The audience...a combination of true fans with the texting, giggling, obnoxious teeny boppers tossed in for irritation's sake. If I have to see one more pair of white, bug-eyed sunglasses and rubber band head bands, I will scream. Still, my show was well worth 3 hours drive each way, late to bed and early to work today. As, I'm sure, was yours. :)
We true fans will always know the words to the old songs and the hipsters will feel inadequate.
seriously! what's the deal with those rubber band head bands? are we still in the 80s? i thought 80s fashion was supposed to be over with. we've been retro 80s for, like, 5 years now. can't we finally make it to the 90s already?
I didn't know you were in my neighboorhood for the Berkeley concert, I was there too. I was also at the one for your poster.
First...I love the Greek...Second...I love DCFC. I loved that they played some old stuff. I sang to every song (quitely, so as not to disturb my listening pleasure of BG). I saw them at the Fillmore a couple of months ago, and while the venue was smaller, more intimate, this was a better concert. Their time on the road has really payed off.
I always wondered how people from LA felt about that song...but I am a Norcal person, so I often felt what the songs says. The classic rival of N vs. S. here in Cali-forn-i-a.
yeah, i was at the one for the poster as well. next time we're going to have to meet up! were you in the pit or in the "seats"?
I was up in the seats, but sat on the left side so I could look backstage...oh, there's Ben...oh, there's Jason...oh, there's Nick...also I was there with my 11 year old. He cruised around with a friend. I wanted to be easy to find for him.
I like the quotes around the seats. They are the worst. I think I was sitting on a quake fracture the whole concert. One cheek was higher then the other...but that's what you get for going to a concert on the Hayward Fault.
my college campus (mills college - go oakland!) is perched over the fault. my senior dorm was literally directly on top of the fault line and rattled constantly with the 1000s of miniquakes.
i always consider using the seats at the Greek, but i like being up close and personal. i just never get there early enough to be front and center - usually because i'm battling one of the parking ticket machines.
If you only knew how lucky you are! I'd kill to see DCFC just once this year, even amidst all the annoying teenyboppers. The boys haven't toured to FL since 2007 & before that, 2005. The last time I got to see them at a REAL show (small venue, less than 200 people) was in 2003. It was merely a week after Transatlanticism was released & they weren’t even remotely popular at that point. It was the best show I’ve experienced to date. If only we could go back to those days…