I recently went to see Death Cab for Cutie at the Armory in Minneapolis. I’m not like a diehard DCFC fan, though the “Plans” album I listened from beginning to end over and over. I knew they were coming out with a new album, but I didn’t know about the tour. It was a last minute decision to go. Knowing that I probably would know only about half of the songs they’d play.
I’m glad I went because it was one of the best concerts I’ve been to. I came home feeling inspired. Now I’m trying to reflect on what made the whole experience so uplifting and satisfying.
1. Energy
Death Cab isn’t the most energetic of bands. But the band knew that for live shows up tempo songs translate better. It also helps that the most recent album, I Built You a Tower, has higher urgency to it.
Anyway, DCFC is definitely a Ben-and-his-band situation, and it showed. Ben had the most energy of them all. Bouncing in-between singing. Venturing to different sides of stages. Rocking with his bandmates. It was his band and his space and he had enough energy to infect all of us.
2. Song Arrangements
One of the arrangement best practices is to keep each instrument do simple things. Remove unnecessary notes. But create distinctness either through note movements or tone.
Death Cab is a master at this. Their arrangements create space and openness. The songs come through effortlessly. No virtuoso musicianship to distract you from the strength of compositions. Not saying having space for individual expression is bad. But it runs the risk of not serving the song. With Death Cab, every note exists to serve the song.
3. Understated use of visual elements.
Screens are staples of modern concert experience. In big venues, I appreciate it when they show the musicians on screen, so people from the nosebleed seats can see. But some artsier bands use it as a narrative tool (like recycling / reusing their music videos). Tool is in this school — and I do love their music. But I’m not a big fan of “short film with a live band” type approach.
If I am going to see a concert, I wanna see the musicians perform.
I really loved how Death Cab used their screens. Instead of either, their screens stuck to showing abstract backgrounds and movements. They served as the visual vibe-setter for each song. And they didn’t need to be super coordinated with the key moments in the music.
It’s like the band chose animated backdrops to go with each song. I could keep watching the musicians because the screens were not worth focusing on. But they added a lot to the whole experience at the same time. The animation moved with kinetic energy for faster songs. They were static for slower, intimate moments.
The end result was that the screens enriched, rather than distracted. I never felt that typical conflict between choosing to focus on the musicians or the screens.
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