A couple of weeks ago now I traipsed up to London to see one of my all time favourite bands, Death Cab, on one of their rare jaunts over to the UK. You may be wondering why I use the verb 'traipsed' in that sentence - that doesn't sound like a particularly enthusiastic mode of movement for someone on the way to see one of her favourite bands. The thing was, I had been at a friend's rather large 18th bash the preceding night (complete with free ice cream van and photobooth, yeah, I KNOW!) so, come mid-afternoon on the day of the gig I was still not feeling particularly enthused by the thought of moving from my comfortable position on the sofa watching the first series of Skins from start to finish, even if it was to see Death Cab.
Anyway, in the end it was well worth the effort of leaving my nest. Since we had left leaving my house till as late as was possible without actually missing the gig we didn't exactly have prime positions - we were very much at the back of the O2 academy - with the 'swayers' as opposed to the actual dancers. Which, though a shame, at that point in time suited me well enough. (However, this poor position has meant that my photos aren't as SUPER AWESOME as they usually are in gig posts... soz about that).
Since they're a well established band with seven (I think?) albums under their belts I was intrigued as to which songs would make the cut for their set. One of the nicest things about this gig, in my view, was that they didn't neglect their older albums in order to play their newest release, Codes & Keys, in full, like some sort of advertisement. Of course a good few songs from the new LP were played - the single 'You Are a Tourist', the remarkably cheerful 'Stay Young, Go Dancing' and the title track included amongst others - but plenty of songs from the other 6 albums were played too.
They started with 'I Will Possess Your Heart' (if you don't know it GO LISTEN TO IT HERE) from 'Narrow Stairs', with its brooding 5 minute intro - an epic start by anyone's standards. I was particularly happy to hear 'Photobooth', from the Forbidden Love EP, since that was the first song by of theirs I ever heard, and of course 'I Will Follow You Into The Dark' was a stand-out moment, with Ben Gibbard left alone on stage with only his acoustic guitar for comp'ny (the cynic in me raised my eyebrows at the sudden intensification of the crowd's whooping, there must've been a fair few people there for whom this was the only familiar song - don't get me wrong, I love it too, but it does bug me when people neglect the rest of a great band's 'oeuvre' just because of one famous track). Ben even made a quip about vampires before launching into 'Meet me on the Equinox', a song they wrote for one of the Twilight movies - a track which I must say I enjoyed a lot more live than I ever did before, I'd always thought it was a little weaker than their actual album material. But meh.
Anywho, the final moment I'll focus on is the final song they played, Transatlanticism. Blimey that was a good way to finish. Slow-burning build-ups are definitely what this band do best, so bookmarking the set with two of these was a good choice.
Here it is. Hangover forgotten, ears still slightly ringing, I was somewhat dazed leaving the venue... It was a pretty magical way to finish the evening.
