Music Review: ‘Death Cab for Cutie’

Ella Navarro

 

Death Cab For Cutie ‘haunted our life’ on Sunday at Amager Bio with a performance that was worth the wait and the support act.

Pussy, weed, beer
The show opened with Chastity Belt, an indie-rock girl band from Seattle – who are definitely worth checking out – that started as a joke among college friends who are now voicing deep feminist ideas.

“We just say what we have to say, from our own experience,” expressed Julia Shapiro, the lead singer. Their songs include self-deprecating humour and piercing screams that make you want to move your legs to the music.

“Are you excited to see Death Cab For Cutie?” shouted Shapiro. The crowd cheered as one.

The melancholic frontman
Lead singer Ben Gibbard and his funny haircut (or was it Cousin Itt?) burst out onto the stage singing ‘No room in frame’, the first song of their new record Kintsugi. The audience went crazy.

Kintsugi, their eighth studio album and first since 2011, is named after a Japanese art movement in which broken ceramics are fused together again with precious metals to be repaired. The title was inspired after Chris Walla, one of the guitarists, left the group after 17 years.

Rumour has it that inspiration also came from Gibbard’s divorce from Zooey Deschanel (New Girl, (500) Days of Summer). Therefore, the new songs are about reconciling with the past, but also about moving forward.

One of the peak moments of the concert, the song ‘What Sarah Said’ with Gibbard playing the piano, literally brought tears to my eyes.

And the beautiful melancholy continued as, Gibbard solo on the guitar, played an acoustic ‘I Will Follow you Into the Dark’, which took me back to that romantic scene at the Hollywood sign in Friends with Benefits, and ‘You’ve haunted me all my life’. 

The man with the mystery eyes – hiding behind his fringe – was bewitching us all.

Straight from the gut
Although it was great to hear old tunes from their previous albums – The New Year, Crooked Teeth and Grapevine Fires – the new album overshadows the rest. Every song goes deep into your heart, with meaningful lyrics that everyone can relate to. It was magical to hear most of the songs live. In my opinion, this new album is definitely their best yet.

“Thanks for coming to spend your Sunday with us, Copenhagen. You really made us feel like it was a Saturday party,” thanked Gibbard before coming back for the last repertoire – a staggering eight-minute rendition of ‘Transatlanticism’ that blew us away. 

★★★★★

Death Cab for Cutie
Sun Nov 8, 20:00;
Amager Bio, Cph S

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