Concert Review: Death Cab for Cutie at Artpark - Lewiston, NY 07/11/2022

For one longtime Death Cab for Cutie fan, this is the show that caused the love affair to begin again.

Not long ago, I wondered if I had seen enough Death Cab for Cutie shows to last a lifetime. I was taken aback by how far the band had moved from their earliest years as mopey, slovenly indie rock underdogs to bright, bouncy indie rock kings. While I didn’t begrudge Ben Gibbard, Nick Harmer, Jason McGerr, and newcomers Dave Depper and Zac Rae their evolution, I wondered if it included me. What I came to realize this week after taking my 9-year-old to see the band at Artpark in Lewiston, New York, was that I was looking at things wrong. I looked at Death Cab for evidence when I should have looked inward at myself. Artists make art and play shows and do their thing, and to a certain degree, whether or not you go along for the ride is up to you.

I first saw Death Cab for Cutie about 20 years ago in Cambridge, Mass, at The Middle East. I had been listening to some sampler MP3s I downloaded from their label Barsuk Records, but after seeing them perform live that afternoon, I bought all their available records. I believe this was just before The Photo Album's release, so that meant two records.

For the next decade or so, Death Cab launched into the short list of my favorite bands of all time. They were a band I traveled to see whether I was driving to the Metro in Chicago or Club Laga in Pittsburgh. At home in Cleveland, I saw the band in the Agora Ballroom, Tower City Amphitheater, the Odeon, The Agora Theater, and Nautica. Honestly, it’s hard to keep track anymore, but suffice to say, I saw as many Death Cab shows as any other national band in my lifetime. And in my mind, it was becoming stale because I kept longing for them to be the band I remembered from when I was younger.

That feeling changed this week when I took my son Will to the show.

I bought the tickets because Will took to “Marching Bands of Manhattan” from Death Cab’s Plans album. Of course, he did so because I played it around him enough times that he was able to identify it as one he liked. Soon, he started requesting it when we’d get in the car. He’s a little people pleaser, so while I know he likes the song, I also know that he wanted to request something that he knows I like. I jumped at it when I had a chance to buy tickets and take him to the show.

As the band took the stage and the opening notes of “I Will Possess Your Heart” rang out from the bass guitar, all the pretense I had been bringing to Death Cab over the last five years because they weren’t the band I grew up loving melted away. The older, healthier, and bouncier band before us was showing itself off to a brand new fan sitting next to me who didn’t have all those calluses. To him, this is what Death Cab for Cutie has always been, and it was spectacular in its own right. Ben Gibbard seems happy, and as he playfully moves around the stage to share licks with Dave Depper and Zac Rae, or dance on the drum riser with Nick Harmer and Jason McGerr, the band seems like a team with incredible chemistry. The band is bigger and tighter than ever, but that’s not bad unless you’re longing for the gritty old days for sentimental reasons.

The band didn’t play “Marching Bands of Manhattan,” but Will was happy enough to hear “Soul Meets Body” and “I Will Follow You Into the Dark.” He also recognized “The New Year” and “Blacking Out the Friction,” which has become a total jam live. Same with “We Looked Like Giants.” Of course, I still miss the Chris Walla era, but this latest iteration isn’t better or worse. It’s just different and totally worthy.

Seeing this crowd, including my son, enjoy the show to the thunderous ovations made me realize that it wasn’t that Death Cab had lost anything over the years or that they weren’t as good as when I was in my 20s. As I’ve said recently in other places, it is work to be a fan of anything. If you’re a football fan, you’re going to enjoy it more if you know every player on the team, including the third cornerback and the fourth linebacker, for example. When you’re a fan of a band, and they release new music, you have to listen to it with the intent of getting to know it, so you give yourself a chance to love it. And maybe it’s impossible to love anything in your 40s as much as you can in your 20s, but that’s alright. The point is that I stopped putting in the work, which is a dramatic way of saying that I wasn’t listening or hearing Death Cab in recent years.

I fell back in love with Death Cab for Cutie this week. The band was great. I got to share it with my son. I also allowed myself to update my definition of the band. Some other specifics from the show at Artpark?

I couldn’t believe how well “60 and Punk” came off this time. The first time I heard Death Cab perform this song live, it sounded like an outlier. I wondered if they would ever play it live after the tour in support of the album, Thank You For Today was in the rearview mirror. As it turns out, I wasn’t ready for it. The song is a set highlight. The crowd gave it a huge response, and it made total sense to me this time. My definition of that song is officially updated.

I still don’t love the first single “Roman Candles” from the band’s forthcoming record Asphalt Meadows. However, the second single, “Here to Forever” sounded like a hit to me. I loved the sound of the chorus live. And with my newfound perspective, I’m going to withhold final judgment until I hear all the songs in their proper order on the record. I’ll listen to it a few times to see if I can get the overall rhythm of the record and identify a few new favorites.

It feels good to be in love again. It’s yet another life lesson I learned, at least partially from being a dad. Kids teach us so much about ourselves because they force us to think about things from a perspective outside of our own.