Death Cab for Cutie - In Retrospect
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Death Cab for Cutie - In Retrospect
I'm sorry Malaysians, clearly we got the better end of the deal. You guys had Explosions in the Sky, that's fine - we got Death Cab for Cutie. You win some and you lose some, right? There isn't a point to call us names or to flame us over the internet, it's all a very fair world out there. So Death Cab for Cutie finally made their way down to Singapore at long last. According to Ben Gibbard, they got lost along the way, but we don't blame you. Not a lot of people notice this small little island in the middle of the South China Sea, not even the more popular singers and bands out there anyway. To have an indie band from Seattle notice this little island and to come here, it really is our honor more than anybody else's. Before I fire off with this entry, I'd like to thank you guys for coming down here and to play this wonderful gig for us all, it was a treat for all of us music fans in Singapore, truly. Thank you for making the effort to please fans outside of America, you don't know how much it means to people like us, the ones who love anything but the mainstream trash on the radio.
I had errands to run before the concert, and the thunderstorm before the show was distracting enough. The last thing on my mind this afternoon was the concert, and I wasn't half as hyped as I was for the previous gigs. I supposed I have gotten used to the idea of meeting my favorite bands and listening to my favorite songs live. I had to pick up a package at Swisshotel for my mother, and the rain wasn't exactly the most cheerful aspect of the day at that point in time. I was two hours early when I reached the Esplanade, and there wasn't a soul out there other than the staff and a couple of other wandering souls. Sudoku on my iPod Touch was entertaining only for so long, and the pianists who were rehearsing for the free gig later on in the evening were rather anti-climatic. I mean, they were good - really good. But they'd play a song until its climax and then stop abruptly while I was just beginning to get interested. I know they were only rehearsing, but it still turned me off quite a bit. Anyway, a big shout out to Neptina for being there when I was bored out of my mind. It was fun talking to you despite not knowing you before you decided to pick the empty space between the old middle-aged lady and myself. It was great fun talking to you, really, and I hope the gig blew you away despite being there all along. At least now you have something to boast about, and we are all suckers for that.
Anyway, I entered the concert hall in quite a hurry, since Ahmad only just made it in time, and I didn't want to be those inconsiderate idiots who stroll into the concert hall ten minutes late. I settled down at my seat, the lights were dimmed, and the band walked onto the stage with the crowd going completely wild. I was still fidgeting with the camera when the band got ready, and I decided that Ahmad would be the photographer and I would be the one recording the set list. Here's the thing: Ahmad is the better photographer, and he has been doing this for his school's paper. What better candidate to be doing the job than the man himself? Besides, the results (as you can see below) are pretty awesome. Kudos to Ahmad for his brilliance, by the way.
The band started with Bixby Canyon Bridge, and then dived straight into the next couple of songs without stopping at all. Crooked Teeth was when the crowd really got into the gig, when everybody really started to sing along to Ben on stage. The band said next to nothing throughout the gig, although there were a couple of greetings and the usual "Hello Singapore" things. I understand that not every band is like Broken Social Scene though, not every band goes up onto the stage drunk and high, so that was alright with me. When the band started on Photo Booth, everybody went apeshit. The sound was probably the closest you'd get to that of an actual volcanic eruption, because that is how the cheer sounded like to me. I wasn't too far away from the stage, just one row behind the last person in the first category, and the view wasn't too bad at all. From where I was, hands flew up into the air and cameras shot out from the darkness when the familiar electronic sounds rang through the speakers for the intro in Photo Booth, and everybody started singing along like a great army of droids, or something.
They sang Grapevine Fires, one of my favorites from the new album. I don't know why, it's just really peaceful and calming to me, the kind of songs that I love I suppose, the ones that are filled with sad hope, if you know what I mean. And, they actually played A Movie Script Ending, how amazing is that? I mean, I loved how the set list had a great blend of the new and the old, everything mixed together into a great big mix tape. Somehow, the band must have read my mind as to all my favorite songs from all the individual albums and played them on stage. A Movie Script Ending is definitely one of my favorites from the Photo Album album, and I joined the apeshit crowd in that very moment and went nuts. Oh, any Death Cab for Cutie fan should experience Soul Meets Body live, because your soul really meets with your body. I swear, the bit in the middle of the song when Ben goes into this little jam with the acoustic guitar, half of the people in the crowd probably had musical orgasms and pissed a little. Speaking of which, the girl next to me was completely off the hook. Her eyes were closed most of the time, and her body swayed so violently that I swear she must have been possessed. She scared me a little, but I really couldn't be bothered.
One thing about being an audience during the song I Will Follow You Into the Dark - shut the hell up! There's Ben, with an acoustic guitar, singing the song all along on the stage. It is supposed to be one of those intimate moments when you simply shut your trap and be moved by the music. You are not supposed to scream, not supposed to shout anything, not supposed to sing along to the song. JUST ADMIRE THE BEAUTY OF THE SONG, please. Anyway, a lot of people didn't get that, and they started singing to every single word of the song. But why wouldn't they? Half of the audience were there probably because they heard a song or two on the radio, or because they were merely fans of the O.C. and thinks that Seth's pretty damn hot in the show. The truth is, the real fans don't need you to fill in the words for the song, we really know it by heart. The same group of people were probably also the ones who decided to shut up when the band played "Your Bruise" and "Company Calls". Why? Because these are older songs of the band, they probably didn't know it at all. Thank God they played the older songs by the way, or else the pseudo-fans wouldn't have shut up.
The radio edit for the song I Will Possess Your Heart is a bastardization, it's like an ugly cousin. It shouldn't even exist in the airwaves at all. It is either the eight minutes monster or nothing at all, please. Thankfully, the band played the album version today, and I swear the build up to the first verse (that lasted for more than half the song) had me holding my breath most of the time. It was really intense, and it's something every fan should experience live. And it was definitely fun for the band to end the main set with The Sound of Settling. Nothing beats the whole concert hall going "Ba ba! Ba ba!" at the very same time. It is one of those moments where you just know that it is anthemic in nature, although I'm not sure if the word "anthemic" exists. It looks more like the medical name for a disease, but whatever - you know what I mean. It was like the Yellow moment in a Coldplay concert, think of it in those terms. At this point in time, I was still wishing for Title & Registration and/or What Sarah Said, and I was certainly not let down by one bit.
Title & Registration came up for the second song during the encore, and everybody went apeshit all over again. It's just one of those songs that made the band, from the album that singlehandedly propelled the band into super stardom in the independent music world. Title & Registration from Transatlanticism, the definitive song in that album for the band, I suppose. Sure, they didn't play What Sarah Said, but it's not like I have any reasons to complain anyway. Transatlanticism ended the entire concert, and I must say that there must have been a lot of people in tears by the end of the song. I wasn't, but I was definitely in the mood for some of those when Ben screamed over the microphone, the words "So come on. So come on". Yeah, it was one of those spine chilling moments that you'd have to be there to experience it for yourself. Seriously, it was a great concert with a solid set list to boot. There isn't anything unworthy about this concert, absolutely nothing - until the end.
You see, I have been praising Esplanade for a very long time because of their organization of autograph sessions after every gig that I have ever been to. None of the gigs I have been to needed you to buy the band's CDs or merchandizes, you just needed to be there with something to sign, even if it was a receipt for your laundry. This time, I was rudely asked to leave the queue right before I had my opportunity to talk to Ben Gibbard and the rest of the band because I only had the tickets and my notebook instead of anything else. I bought the tickets, right? Shouldn't I also be allowed to sign them? Besides, the policeman that asked me to leave the queue had such a bad breath that I'd rather sleep with my shoes tied to my face. The above mentioned incident, according to Ahmad, was the sodomy of Esplanade. He experienced it several times, bad incidents that involved anal staff members as well as unreasonable crew. Thumbs DOWN on Esplanade this time around for not telling us fans to bring or buy the merchandises beforehand. Shame! Shame!
Still, I went home in Ahmad's car afterwards as a happy man for several reasons. 1) The concert was awesome. 2) The pictures are awesome. 3) An Italian woman asked me to take picture for her and her boyfriend at Marina Square, and she was one of the most beautiful woman that I have seen in my life. I swear, when she asked me to take a picture for them, I almost asked them if it was okay for me to take with my own camera. She really was that beautiful, and it was a pity that her camera's quality was pretty horrendous. The grainy picture really didn't do her a lot of justice, but it's not like I wanted to suggest using my Canon anyway. I didn't want her boyfriend, who looked somewhat like a member of the Italian mafia, to gun me down or something. Still, I swear, she was so beautiful that I just stood there with the camera in my hands without pressing the shutter for the longest time. Maybe subconsciously, I just wanted that moment to last a tad bit longer - and it certainly did. Such a beautiful, beautiful woman. Be still, my heart. Anyway, and I got to see Melissa from back in NYJC, still looking really cute despite not having that red Strat she was carrying when I last saw her.
All and all, a great concert with a bunch of great friends and a really special new friend that I got to know to day. I do hope that more bands will come soon, and it really us up to those record companies to make the invitations now. Like I said before, I cannot wait for next year's Mosaic festival to come along, I simply cannot. Who knows what the tide may bring this time around? The excitement and the wait is going to kill me. But for now, I shall continue to ogle over the pictures and relive the night all over again, with the albums playing in the background of course.
Set list:
1. Bixby Canyon Bridge
2. The New Year
3. Why You'd Want To Live Here
4. Crooked Teeth
5. Photo Booth
6. Long Division
7. Grapevine Fires
8. A Movie Script Ending
9. Company Calls
10. Title Track
11. Soul Meets Body
12. I Will Follow You Into The Dark
13. I Will Possess Your Heart
14. Cath...
15. Styrofoam Plates
16. Expo '86
17. The Sound of Settling
Encore:
18. Your Bruise
19. Title and Registration
20. No Sunlight
21. Tiny Vessels
22. Transatlanticism
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, August 13, 2008 at 1:49 AM.
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11:05 AM
Great review and pics..however the sign at the entrance to the autograph session did say the band will sign on official merchandise only. The band did sign on tickets when asked but some over-zealous ushers must have got it wrong for some on this one..nevertheless, a great show and kudos to Greenhorn Productions for making it happen!