Ben Gibbard, seen here headlining Red Rocks Amphitheatre last week, is still pumping out the jams. Photos by .
What I love about : They’re a four-piece that writes music as a four-piece and plays as a four-piece.
Whatap the point of being a four-piece but touring with two extra members? That mysterious keys player who shows up every couple songs? A bit over adventurous in the studio, were we? Death Cab is one of the most popular indie rock bands in the world, and they also happen to be a damn fine four-piece.
Itap special when a band that has been around for as long as Death Cab can play a set that captivates equally with old and new songs alike. At its headlining show last week, Death Cab opened with a crowd-pleasing bender of oldies, skipping from “Your Heart is an Empty Room” to “The New Year” to “Crooked Teeth.”
The band was six or seven songs into the set when they finally played a song off the new “Narrow Stairs,” and those songs – along with one or two from the even newer EP, “The Open Door” – were as warmly received as any of the older hits. Death Cab is working with a rich catalog, yes, but they’re also touring the most important record of their career.
“Narrow Stairs” takes everything the Northwest band does well and packages it all in a glorious fashion. The band took special pleasure with an elongated, near-psych take on “I Will Posses Your Heart,” the already-long single on “Narrow Stairs.” “No Sunlight” was efficiently bright and effervescent, and “Grapevine Fires” was a surprise hit among the packed crowd.
The new “Long Division” sounded like an already classic Death Cab jam, and the EP’s “Little Bribes” came off like a jumpy, if melodic, song the band might have written 10 years ago in singer Ben Gibbard’s basement.
Gibbard remains one of rock’s most listenable frontmen. He sings to be heard, and itap easy to take pleasure in his joy of clear annunciation. That literal approach is what keeps Death Cab honest – singing to be heard and playing what their four (count ’em, four) instruments can handle.
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Ricardo Baca is the founder and co-editor of and an award-winning critic and journalist at The Denver Post. He is also the executive director of the , Colorado’s premier festival of local music. Follow his whimsies at , his live music habit at and his iTunes addictions at .
Denise Chambers is a Denver freelance photographer and regular contributor to Reverb. See more of her work .
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