Seattle's 'Death Cab' gave memorable evening show

By Ryan Summers

In the midst of midterms and papers due, many Washington state students were smiling just a little brighter Wednesday morning.

This Tuesday, the Seattle-based band "Death Cab For Cutie" delivered a energetic and memorable performance at Santa Clara.

Death Cab had great stage presence; they were very animated while playing, interacted with the audience and genuinely looked like they had fun. If the band doesn't look like they were getting into it, no one else will.

The pacing also made Death Cab's performance more of a success -- even if the fans didn't show it. One could tell that the group had carefully planned out their set list. It was well structured, giving a good mix of songs off their new and old albums.

And every song flowed together nicely. Death Cab would play a few fast songs and then a slow one. They opened with "Marching Bands of Manhattan" off of their new album, "Plans," and closed with "Transaltanticism."

The Leavey Center was packed, but the crowd seemed reserved. The awkward mix of fraternity guys and scene kids may have had something to do with it, but the band made up for a lack of intensity.

If you missed Death Cab on Tuesday, then don't despair. This past August, they released their fifth, full-length album, called "Plans."

Taking many of the themes from their previous album "Transaltanticism," "Plans" explores ideas of falling in and out of love, and the more in-depth, darker side of relationships.

"We spend a lot of time in our off time, looking for things that inspire us and looking for things that keep our creativity flowing," bassist Nick Harmer said in an interview. "With each passing record, I think it gets more interesting to figure out where haven't we gone and what haven't we done and try and figure out a way to push ourselves to be better at what we're doing."

After seven years of hard work, the band has reached a point where they feel comfortable and confident about the music they make.

"Unlike someone like Madonna who always seems to have a new look and a new thing for every record, I feel like we're pretty consistent from record to record," Harmer said. "I think hopefully when people see a Death Cab record on the shelf, they kind of know what they're going to get."

Contact Ryan Summers at (408) 551-1918 or rsummers@scu.edu.