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Your Gateway to Music and More from a Christian Perspective Slow down as you approach the gate, and have your change ready.... |
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Death
Cab for Cutie, Ben Kweller, and Pedro the Lion
Rocketown Nashville, TN By Trae Cadenhead Being a fan of indie music normally means you don't shell out near as much money for shows as popular music lovers. This particular show was one of the costliest I had seen in quite some time. The $20 admission fee (plus those blasted Ticketmaster surcharges) made me expect something pretty special out of the evening's performances. Rocketown in Nashville hosted the concert at their impressive venue. Pedro the Lion was the opener, certainly the first time I had ever seen the band in that position. With 35 minutes of stage time, Dave Bazan and company blazed through 10 songs with little time for conversation in between. Musically, it was the tightest that I had seen the band in a good while. Dave still seems to favor his old stuff the most, with six of the songs on the set list coming from the pre-Control era. Two new ones from Achilles Heel made the cut ("Foregone Conclusions" and "Start Without Me"). The most interesting moment in the set came when Bazan changed the lyrics to "Slow and Steady Wins the Race" to say "I'll receive a mansion right next to Mel Gibson." A random f word interjected into the song's lyrics seemed more out of frustration than artistic decision. The set closed with "Criticism As Inspiration," which was probably the highlight of Pedro's time on stage. As I waited for Ben Kweller to take the stage, I was a bit disappointed to find that he would be performing solo on this evening. He later explained that his bass player broke his wrist playing whiffle ball. He joked that it will be great once they find a new bass player, though because then the band could be a five piece with the old bassist standing on the side playing tambourine with his good arm. It turned out that humor was Kweller's best approach to take for the evening. He churned out his own rendition of "Ice, Ice Baby" along with Garth Brooks covers of "Friends in Low Places" and "The Rodeo." It was nice to hear Kweller perform his own songs, but it was apparent that the songs would have been much better with full band. To his credit, however, Kweller certainly can get a lot of sound out of an acoustic guitar (we learned that especially when he played "The Rules"). The highlights of the set were the songs designed to be soft in the first place, such as "Lizzy," "On My Way," and "Believer." For what he had, Ben Kweller did a solid job. Thankfully, Death Cab for Cutie made the monetary investment worthwhile. They opened the set with "The New Year" from Transatlanticism, an album which contained half of the song's set list. I was unfamiliar with non-Transatlanticism material, which I began to regret very quickly. I'll definitely be investigating the band's back catalog, however. Over the course of the 80 minute set, the band played every Transatlanticism song that I had hoped to hear. "Expo '86" and "The Sound of Settling" were particularly enjoyable. The band didn't spend too much time talking in between songs, but did do a good deal of instrument switching, even including piano on some of the songs, which added a very nice touch. The set closed with "Tiny Vessels," which then segued into the song "Transatlanticism." The two songs together formed a powerful emotional core and were a fine way to close out a set that was musically quite perfect. The audience begged for an encore after the band left the stage, so we got a couple more songs. The final song (I was since told the name of it is "Styrofoam Plates") was another definite highlight in the set. Though there was no weak spot in the band lineup for the evening, Death Cab was definitely the highlight. Death Cab for Cutie Set List:
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