Show review: Death Cab For Cutie w/Magik*Magik Orchestra at The Wang Theatre – 4/21
Ben Gibbard and company made a stop at the Wang Theatre last Saturday in the course of their unique tour featuring the Magik*Magik Orchestra and support from slowcore pioneers Low.
I’ll be forthright in my mild ambivalence toward Death Cab For Cutie. Last year’s Codes and Keys didn’t do much for me, and even 2005’s beloved Plans has never felt as arresting to me as it has to others. Truthfully, the only Death Cab record I really love is Transatlanticism. It’s the perfect balance of things that Death Cab does well, from the minimal intimacy of ‘Passenger Seat’ and ‘A Lack of Color’ to the impeccably crafted pop of ‘The Sound of Settling’ and the majestic grandeur of the title track. Call it melodramatic if you must, but it’s a resonant album for me.
Why, then, did I venture to both see and write about Death Cab on this particular tour? The answer to that question lies in the combination of Gibbard’s promise via Twitter for setlists featuring lots of old songs, curiosity at the prospect of an indie rock band teaming up with a miniature orchestra for a live show, and the fact that Death Cab had somehow convinced Low to open for them. Regardless of my thoughts on the band’s recent output, this was a show that warranted attention.
Low have been quietly releasing stellar albums since 1994, in both a literal and figurative sense. The group was at the forefront of the 1990s ‘slowcore’ movement: a silly name for a deathly serious brand of crushingly sad music delivered at glacially slow tempos. Low were masters of the genre, alongside bands like Red House Painters and Codeine. Core husband and wife duo Alan Sparkhawk (guitar) and Mimi Parker (drums) share vocal duties, accompanied by bassist Steve Garrington. Their live shows have long been noted for making up with intensity what they lacked in volume. Over the years Low have picked up a bit of dynamic range, as well as a few distortion pedals, and the core elements of their songwriting and lyrics have aged gracefully with their sound. In a set drawing from last year’s C’mon and several of the band’s other post-2000 records, Low constructed an engrossing atmosphere of tense beauty for those smart or lucky enough to show up early last Saturday. Sparhawk and Garrington stayed seated, and Parker stood at her minimal kit armed only with brushes. The progression of Low’s sound has been a subtle one, and they retain much of the minimalism and anti-showiness that marked their early work. Regardless, the quiet roar of Sparhawk’s guitar and the stark power in his and Parker’s vocal delivery and lyrics are more than enough to make for a compelling live show. After twenty years on the scene, Low really shouldn’t qualify as an opening act any longer. In their few moments of stage banter though, they came across as more than happy to be supporting their younger hosts. A class act through and through, and one I hope returns to Boston in the near future for a proper headlining gig.
Later, the main event began as a curtain rose to reveal the eight person Magik*Magik strings section, who played a brief interlude before being joined by Gibbard on piano for a gorgeous ‘Passenger Seat.’ One song in and I was already sold on the blending of Death Cab’s back catalog with their more recent interest in orchestral embellishment. The band’s older songs, reaching as far back as the 1997 demo cassette You Can Play These Songs With Chords, meshed beautifully with the understated string arrangements. The Magik*Magik crew did a wonderful job of adding to the songs without overpowering them. The result was a majestic set which played to the strengths of both the band and the orchestra.
Gibbard switched between piano and guitar over the course of the night, joined by Nick Harmer on bass, Chris Walla on guitar and Jason McGerr on drums. Even with Gibbard permanently at the helm, Death Cab has never been a revolving door type of project. Gibbard, Harmer and Walla have been playing together since the band’s inception, with McGerr being the newest addition back in 2003. By now, the quartet seems comfortable as can be with performing live staples like ‘A Movie Script Ending’ or ‘Soul Meets Body.’ The presence of the strings section and some less familiar songs in the setlist kept things from feeling rote. The band’s inherent chemistry was on display during a mostly acoustic and sans-strings section of the encore, which featured a simple but sweet cover of The Velvet Underground’s ‘I’ll Be Your Mirror.’ Gibbard may not have equaled the vocal distinctiveness of the Nico-sung original, but Lou Reed’s lyrics matched the vibe of the evening perfectly. Shout out to the one particularly loud gentlemen in the back row who somehow misidentified this song as ‘Sweet Jane’ at the first chord change.
The Magik*Magik orchestra would return for a brilliantly sequenced closing segment of ‘I Will Follow You Into The Dark,’ ‘Tiny Vessels,’ and the only song which could’ve ended this show properly: ‘Transatlanticism.’ These closing three songs showcased the best of the band’s most intimate and most outwardly grandiose material, and demonstrated once more with finality that this particular experiment in bringing a string section on tour with an otherwise straightforward rock band was a successful one. If I only see a single Death Cab show in my life, I’m glad it was this one. The revisiting of old songs and the addition of the Magik*Magik Orchestra made for a unique night highlighting everything that this band does well.
And now for some ‘this is the best I could manage under the circumstances’ photography. Note to self: buy tickets earlier when you have no photo pass.
Low:
Death Cab For Cutie:
