As Death Cab For Cutie worked its way through its 90-minute-plus set Sunday night at the Fillmore Auditorium, the fact became increasingly obvious: This band is adult contemporary music for indie rockers.
It’s hardly a slam against Death Cab, which has perfected an ingenious sound.
This Seattle quartet has captured the smart indie spirit within the confines of an extremely cogent and listenable aesthetic.
It works inside your head, and singer-guitarist Ben Gibbard’s lyrics keep you guessing. But something about the bouncing indie rock music facilitates head-nodding – regardless that it all sounds a lot alike.
The spirit of sameness works for this band, and while it’s often monotonous, it’s sometimes artful too.
As Death Cab kicked off its energetic set with the oldie but goodie “405,” it served as a reminder that this band is built on a foundation of familiarity – a building block it has hardly strayed from in its nine years of existence.
Of course, Gibbard’s voice is the most recognizable vox in all of indie rock – which can be considered a good or bad attribute, depending on where you stand with this band. But the music, too, is solidly Death Cab.
It’s consistently melodic and hummable, very easily understood and quickly grasped.
It’s more popular than it is indie, a qualifier that makes sense given the band is playing again tonight at the Fillmore. (Sunday’s show was sold out; tickets are still available for tonight’s gig.)
This is what indie rock sounds like when it breaks out – and seeing Death Cab on Sunday was reminiscent of Coldplay’s first Colorado gigs before the band fully broke with “Yellow” and its subsequent hits.
Early in the set came the popular “Your Heart is an Empty Room,” the excellent “The New Year” and the subdued “We Laugh Indoors.”
Fans enjoyed Gibbard’s vocal outbursts and lead guitarist Chris Walla’s limited solos, but they were otherwise notably quiet – save for hits such as “Soul Meets Body,” which came early on in the form of an animated jolt, and “We Looked Like Giants,” after which Gibbard took on the drum kit.
Other songs were representative of this band’s tried-and- true (and, yes, slightly played-out) sound, including “Title and Registration,” “Expo ’86” and the newbies “Crooked Teeth” and “What Sarah Said.”
Even more so than Modest Mouse’s last record, this is indie rock for FM radio – which is both a positive and a negative. It’s spreading the good word, but it’s also dumbing it all down in the process.
Pop music critic Ricardo Baca can be reached at 303-820-1394 or rbaca@denverpost.com.
