Concert Review: Death Cab for Cutie at Carroll University in Waukesha, WI · Apr 25, 04:29 PM by Don
I hadn’t seen Death Cab for Cutie since a 2002 show at the Miramar in Milwaukee. That was with the Dismemberment Plan and the tour was called, you guessed it, the “Death & Dismemberment Tour.” The openers at the show last Sunday at the Van Male Field House at Carroll University in Waukesha, Wisconsin (about 15 miles west of Milwaukee) were Ra Ra Riot and Cold War Kids. Ra Ra Riot was competent and polite, but ultimately forgettable. Like an Arcade Fire with zero melodrama. Cold War Kids played most of their set backlit, bathed in shadow. The only things preventing their set from being better was (1) my only passing familiarity with their songs and (2) the fact that it was in a field house and not a small club. I’d love to see them again in a place like Turner Hall Ballroom in Milwaukee.
Death Cab for Cutie played a mix of songs from its last three albums, Transatlanticism, Plans, and Narrow Stairs. “Grapevine Fires” was an affecting highlight. Unfortunately, “Bixby Canyon Bridge” failed to connect during its big climax. This may have had something to do with the field house acoustics. (I did like the Van Male’s white ceiling. It reflected much of the stage lighting, giving the room a glow missing from darker venues.) The first song of the encore was a Ben Gibbard solo rendition of “I Will Follow You into the Dark.” He requested that everyone put away their cameras and just let the song exist in the moment. I appreciated his message. I sensed somehow that there was more that Gibbard wanted to say. Maybe something along the lines of, “Don’t become slaves to the machines, or it’ll be just like The Matrix! Or Terminator! Or Battlestar Galactica! Or, Gods help us, that Stephen King stillbirth/unintentional comedy, Maximum Overdrive!” At five songs, though, the encore dragged. That the last song was the epic “Transatlanticism” didn’t help.
Set List: Marching Bands of Manhattan / The New Year / We Laugh Indoors / Crooked Teeth / Photobooth / No Sunlight / Company Calls / Your Bruise / Grapevine Fires / I Will Possess Your Heart / Little Bribes / Title and Registration / Cath… / The Remainder / The Sound of Settling / Bixby Canyon Bridge / Encore: I Will Follow You into the Dark / Styrofoam Plates / A Diamond and a Tether / Soul Meets Body / Transatlanticism
mp3: Death Cab for Cutie – Soul Meets Body :: live at Kulturbolaget (2006)
Photo Credit: andmerk
Correction: Carroll College is no longer the name of the institution where I saw the above concert. On July 1, 2008, the institution changed its name to Carroll University. Thanks “Comic Book Guy”!
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Songs in the MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 format are offered for a limited time only. Songs that are no longer downloadable can be streamed at the Timedoor page at Hype Machine. Dead mp3 links take you to the top of the blog.
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The name of the school is now “Carroll University” – as I know, and you evidently do not.
— Comic Book Guy Apr 26, 08:44 PM #