Review: Death Cab for Cutie @ The Beacon Theatre

Death Cab for Cutie @ The Beacon Theatre, New York, NY - April 28, 2012

Review: Christopher Arroyo

One of the bigger treats in life, to me at least, has got to be the joy of a great show. It has to have emotion and power, you have to be moved, and goddamn it, it had better sound fucking good. And that’s just what Ben and the boys delivered at the Beacon Theatre last Saturday. I shamefully admit that this was my first Death Cab show and it was worth the wait. 

Review: Death Cab For Cutie - Codes and Keys

Death Cab For Cutie Codes and Keys [Atlantic; 2011]
By Jessica Callender

Formed in 1997, Death Cab For Cutie has always maintained a detachment from the more popular crowds of the industry with their distinct sounds, sad-sack lyrics, and varied concepts. Supposedly their newest album doesn’t keep in line with such tenets as lead vocalist Ben Gibbard describes this album as their least guitar-centric body of work ever. In spite of that, it’s possible that this “emo” band has finally reached the middle of the road.

Codes and Keys, once again produced by guitarist Chris Walla, starts off with “Home is a Fire,” a track that preserves a frenetic pace that is ironically both relaxing and beautiful as Ben Gibbard’s pure vocals invoke a feeling of longing throughout the fluttering timbre and jazzy polyrhythm. The track “Unobstructed Views” begins with a beautifully tense instrumental of jangling piano chords that melts into a very pretty love song. An additional pleasure “Monday Morning,” is Gibbard’s love struck ode to a modern girl enamored with the classics.

However, title track “Codes and Keys” is a bit underwhelming; the driving sounds of piano, violin and some guitar coupled with the lyrics give the song little soul and feels rather forced. A more easily tolerable track, “Doors Unlocked and Open” has a mid-tempo swing to it with what appears to be inspired lyrics as Gibbard continuously sings “we’ll be free with doors unlocked and open”, it also doesn’t hurt that it’s pretty catchy. Lead single “You’re a Tourist” is equally mediocre, with its thick layers of guitar and bass and the repetition of the hook “when there’s a burning in your heart”.

It’s rather difficult for me to be as discouraged about Codes and Keys as I am. I fell in love with Death Cab when Plans came out in 2005 and I was pleasantly intrigued by Narrow Stairs and its dark starkness in 2008; but whatever formula DCFC has concocted for Codes left me rather bored and uninspired. Perhaps they need different production or maybe they’re looking to expand their fan base, I’m not sure. What I do know is that I will continue to be a fan to artists who have worked tirelessly in the industry for over a decade, and hope that this is merely a hiccup in an otherwise fairly awesome track record.

This Week's Nostalgia (5/30-6/5)

Last week marked the release of Thurston Moore's excellent Demolished Thoughts, so if you haven't checked out our coverage, do so now. And let's move onto other things. We took a road trip to Portland, ME to check out the band that pretty much encapsulates Fucking Nostalgic: Mission of Burma. Photos from that amazing performance will be shortly, but for now let's see what's on the schedule this week. Though this is somewhat of a slow week for nostalgia, there are still a few shows worth making the effort to get into. Here are this week's picks:

Death Cab For Cutie @ Bowery Ballroom - Wednesday, June 1st

Death Cab continue their trend of releasing albums with extremely boring artwork and titles. Codes and Keys, the band's seventh studio album will be released on Tuesday. To celebrate, the band will begin their tour at the very intimate Bowery Ballroom on Wednesday. Their next NYC appearance won't be until August 8th when they play the much bigger (and outdoor) Williamsburg Waterfront venue in Brooklyn, so you may want to try your hardest to make it into this sold out show. Check out craigslist, but please don't pay outrageous ticket prices when you can still very easily get tickets, to the Waterfront show. That would just be silly.


Stiff Little Fingers @ Club Europa - Thursday, June 2nd / Gramercy Theatre - Friday, June 3rd

Remember that scene in High Fidelity when Sara Gilbert asks for the new Green Day record and Dick the record store clerk recommends a much more authentic punk band? That would be Ireland's Stiff Little Fingers, who are currently touring and according to their website, are working on a new album. The band hits NYC twice, first at Club Europa in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and then at the much bigger Gramercy Theatre in Manhattan. Tickets for both Europa and Gramercy are still on sale. Get to it.


Bad Manners @ The Studio at Webster Hall - Saturday, June 4th

Bad Manners are sort of the ska equivalent to Les Savy Fav. In many ways the former are the precursor to the latter. They both feature larger than life frontmen, whose live performances stand alone from their studio recordings. Though Bad Manners' frontman Buster Bloodvessel is no longer the some-300 lb. singer he used to be, his antics are still as wacky as always, making their live show something worth checking out. I couldn't tell you what any of the material they recorded in the past two decades sounds like, but I'm assuming it is pretty much run-of-the-mill 2-tone ska. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. One of my favorite NYC ska bands from back in the day, the Scofflaws, will be opening. Tickets are still on sale.


If there are any shows coming up this week you feel particularly nostalgic about, let us know in the comments section below. Until next week...