Death Cab For Cutie - Glasgow Academy

Watching Death Cab's frontman Ben Gibbard, the unashamed flag bearer of heart on the sleeve indie rock, you'd never know that little more than a week ago he and his true love (everyone's favourite indie actress Zooey Deschanel - see Elf and 500 Days of Summer) announced that they were divorcing. Or "like, totally splitting up" as one excitable, 'geek chic' bespectacled, side fringed hipster tells another in The Academy's foyer. Although Gibbard's seemingly upbeat front is convincing enough, a few song selections lend themselves to the thought that he's likely wallowing in heartbreak.


Death Cab are currently on tour in the UK promoting their newest record (the band's seventh) 'Codes And Keys', however looking at tonight's setlist it'd be understandable to think it was something of a Greatest Hits tour.
As an avid fan of the band since their breakthrough album 'Transatlanticism' I've travelled far and wide to watch them - Inverness to London is not a trip I'd readily make to see just any band - and older tracks like 'Why You'd Want To Live Here' and 'Company Calls' get every back catalogue owning fan singing along to every word. However it seems that the capacity crowd in Glasgow's historic Academy are here to see the Washington stalwarts of catchy, emotionally charged alt. rock play tracks from the past three, relatively commercially successful albums. There are very few bands who have a back catalogue quite as extensive before gaining commercial success as Death Cab; Elbow are the only one who spring to mind. In a recent interview with 6Music Gibbard told Lauren Laverne that he felt the band, now in their fourteenth year together, are at a point in their career where they can afford to dip into older albums. This understandably means some of the better known tracks must be cut.


The most noticeable omission from tonight's set is the summery 'Sound of Settling', one of the band's few tracks NOT about breakups or death. 'You Are A Tourist' provides ample cheery guitar lines though and the track grows into something almost anthemic as guitarist (and Tegan And Sara's producer) Chris Walla mashes his guitar strings between stints on the keyboard. 'What Sarah Said' sees Gibbard hop onto a piano to recount a tale of "An I.C.U that reeked of piss" and how "Each descending peak on the LCD took you a little farther away from me..." Romantic stuff it ain't. Full blown multi-instrumentalism ensues as 'We Looked Like Giants' kicks into life, Walla and bassist Nick Harmer swap instruments and the five minute jam that follows sees Ben Gibbard jump onto a second drum kit and match full time drummer Jason McGerr's technical skills behind a kit. The band's biggest "hit" (it feels wrong to call it that as they are just so not mainstream) 'I Will Follow You Into The Dark' is somewhat clumsily thrown in mid-set and the rest of the band exit right while Gibbard sings the Romeo and Juliet inspired line "If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks / Then I'll follow you into the dark." It's all mobile phones in the air and tuneless singalongs but the delicate tone of the song still manages to come across. It should have perhaps been left to the encore.


When it did arrive the encore was particularly strong. With Ben taking stage on his own again to perform 'A Lack Of Colour' the sentiment of the song is given a far greater meaning given his own personal troubles at the moment. When he sings "On your machine I slur a plea for you to come home / But i know it's too late / I should have given you a reason to stay" you can't help but imagine a love lost Gibbard calling his beloved Zooey. Ending the set with the frankly epic title track from their breakthrough 'Transatlanticism' the repetition of the line "I need you so much closer" seems to go on forever, and yet ends all too soon. As they take their bows and tell us "We'll see you sometime down the line" I just hope next time we do see them on a Greatest Hits tour they make their intentions a little more clear. Still, their crown of kings of alt. rock is still worn proudly, even if it is on less doe-eyed and more heartbroken heads.