photo by Phillip Roffman

Last night may have been a typical Saturday night in October for you … perhaps you were at home enjoying a movie,  knocking back a few with friends, or maybe taking your dog for a walk. Last night was anything but typical when I found myself delightfully squished in the middle of a rather large crowd of Death Cab for Cutie fans at the House of Blues Orlando. I know I know, I can’t believe it either. Driving 4 hours in a torrential downpour and waiting fora quite a while for DCFC to take the stage was comparable to waiting for your sleeping family to wake up on Christmas morning so you can open your damn presents! Finally the lights went down and the opening chords of “I Will Possess Your Heart” filled the room. The whole crowd fangirled (yes that is a thing) including myself.  I was slightly surprised at how charged with energy the show was, considering the melancholy-ness  DCFC is known for.

I recently read  an interview in the June issue of Spin Magazine that shined a new light on who Ben Gibbard is as a person, what he feels, and what he’s gone through. Previously thinking he was simply Ben Gibbard: incredible singer, songwriter, performer, attractive male..I learned he had also had an unhealthy obsession with alcohol saying ” writing is such a solitary act. You spend hours alone only with your thoughts, and you torture yourself. It’s a tendency of many writers to temper the self-destructive acts of writing with other self-destructive acts. I certainly was one of those people for a long time” (Hunter S. Thompson comes to mind).  After this realization he became sober in 2008 and about four or five months later he met and later married Zooey Deschanel.

Death Cab for Cuties new album Codes and Keys proves to be “a more even emotional palette” than the previous Death Cab albums. From the beginning of the concert to the end you could see the happiness painted all over Ben’s face. He couldn’t have put anymore of himself into that show, it really was a treat in itself to see him, unable to keep his body from moving with the music almost as if he was possessed by the sound. There was so much emotional power behind each and every song they performed and of course I shed some serious happy tears (inevitable at this point in the night). At one point he moved to the drums and played a pretty kick ass solo because apparently he kills it on the drums in his spare time. To set the mood for each song, colorful images flashed across the four vertical video screens behind the band. Another thing I loved about the show was they really made us concert-goers feel special,  like they wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but in that room playing for us. It’s not everyday your favorite band makes you feel that way. Just when we thought that the show was coming to an end Gibbard said “We can do better than one more song. We don’t get down here that often (hey Gib, how about we change that!); we gotta make it worth your while.” and that is precisely what they did. Of the songs they played some of my favorites were “Soul Meets Body“, “Doors Unlocked and Open“, “Grapevine Fires“, and “You are a Tourist” but the haunting solo rendition Ben Gibbard did of “I Will Follow You Into the Dark” brought tears to my eyes…like, real weepy tears. I’d have to say that my favorite part of the whole concert was when I heard the beginnings of my favorite Death Cab song of ALL time “Title and Registration” come on. At that moment I began to ask myself “is this real life?!” and all the different moments in my life where that song had been present popped into my head. I was so chock full of happiness I very well could’ve exploded! Luckily I stayed in tact long enough to jump up and down like a maniac to “Sound of Settling” which always brings me back to the day I went to Best Buy to purchase my still favorite DCFC album “Transatlantacism” and couldn’t help but dance in the car to that song the entire way home! And that is what it’s all about isn’t it? That feeling of nostalgia and the connection between music and memories? In my book, that is the case.

It is such a magical experience when a huge group of totally diverse people are all brought together by the love they share for a band, and last night was no different. Like I said in my yesterday’s “Song of the Day” post, this was a night to remember, a HUGE musical moment in my life that I am still pinching myself over. The only thing that could’ve possibly made it better would be a little Seth Cohen action (amirite?!).

Setlist:
I Will Possess Your Heart
Crooked Teeth
Why You’d Want to Live Here
Photobooth
Doors Unlocked and Open
Long Division
Grapevine Fires
Codes and Keys
What Sarah Said
I Will Follow You into the Dark
Your Bruise
You Are a Tourist
The New Year
A Movie Script Ending
Company Calls
Soul Meets Body
Stay Young, Go Dancing
Cath…
We Looked Like Giants
The Sound of Settling
Encore:
Title and Registration
Brothers on a Hotel Bed
Blacking Out the Friction
St Peter’s Cathedral
Transatlanticism